The Light Within the Darkness
by FrozenDeluxe
Summary: After the fall of Vintage, its members were scattered throughout the human world. There was no returning to Hell. No, the new devils had made sure of that. As of Novermber 7th, 2015, this series has ended.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi readers! FrozenDeluxe writing here...**

 **So this is my first time writing an FF, so it may not be the best compared to others. I'll explain a bit...**

 **Way back when I was reading WGOK: What Happened Next by KodakaRedfox I figured I might give it a try. I wrote down a chapter on my phone. Then another. I'll be honest- imagining this was much more fun than writing it. If I get enough views I may update (I have more you know.) I am one of those people who don't know when they will ever be online, so I may not be able to post continuously. I'll try a double chapter now.**

 **And btw Lune didn't show up as a character for some reason. :C**

 **That being said, enjoy the FF!**

After the fall of Vintage, its members were scattered throughout the human world. There was no returning to Hell. No, the new devils had made sure of that.

Enter Satyr, an organization so secret even Vintage is somewhat unaware of its actions. Its members are far more sinister, without conscience or hesitation. There came a day where a bulletin was issued. The member who kills the most demons and obtains their rainments will be promoted and showered with power and glory. They went wild.

...

In the midnight skies over Maijima City, six Vintage demons chased after Lune. "How predictable,"Lune thought, "that Vintage would turn on its own members over such an important promotion."

"Just give us your rainment, and we'll let you live," one of them hissed.

"You know that isn't possible," replied Lune with a smile on her face while dodging a pursuant's knife. A demon summoned spirit vines to grab Lune as she flew, though she dodged them with ease. The other demons were starting to fall behind her... Lune managed to maneuver some of the demons into spirit vines, but a few remained in pursuit.

Suddenly, a vine caught her foot. Lune stumbled midair, the vine wrapping itself around her leg. She tripped directly into the path of a demon, who slashed vigorously in an attempt to kill her. Lune

managed to deflect most of the blows with her boxcutter, but the demon's knife managed to slice into her chest, making a deep gash. The three remaining demons took advantage of this, quickly surrounded her, and prepared to cast an assassination spell. Lune's felt her energy ebb away as her wound bled.

"I guess this leaves me one last option..." Lune thought.

She quickly cast an invisibility spell on herself, then created a bright flash using her rainment. The Vintage demons quickly scattered to find her, not realizing she was still there, hovering where the flash originated. The world below did not take notice of this brilliant flicker of light in the sky.

Lune suddenly descended from the skies, the last of her energy struggling to keep her steady. She landed roughly in a park just as the sun rose, then proceeded to search for a hidden area, somewhere safe. As she searched for a hideout, her invisibility spell wore off, leaving a small blood trail behind her. Lune headed towards a heavily wooded section until her legs gave way and her vision clouded. She lay there, weak and without defenses, ready to die. She pulled out her boxcutter and gripped it tightly, as though it was her only lifeline keeping her alive. Her vision gradually dimmed, until she could only see darkness.

"This is it for me," whispered Lune with a slight grin before losing consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kami-Nii Sama!" Elsie called, "Please hurry, or we'll be late for school!" 

Keima, meanwhile, continued playing on his PFP, apparently unaware of the time. 

"I'll be ready in five minutes," he replied without looking up. 

True to his word, he left with Elsie five minutes later. 

As they made their way to the school, Elsie sighed, "Aww, it's another Monday..." 

Keima said nothing to this. He continued playing on his PFP. 

"Nothing interesting ever happens on Monday." Elsie continued. 

Keima abruptly stopped walking. Something had caught his eye. 

"Eh? What's wrong, Kami-Nii Sama?" Elsie asked.

No reply.

"Is it a fire engine?" Elsie enthusiastically wondered while looking around. She tried following Keima's line of sight, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. 

Keima looked seriously at Elsie and said, "Go ahead of me to school, and If I do not return in time, make a copy of me with your rainment."

Elsie nodded and left, wondering what could possibly bother her brother that much. 

"Maybe it's Chihiro," she thought to herself. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi readers! You may notice that I've left out the masochist side of Lune in most of my writing...sorry about that.**

 **I was actually intending on focusing on her serious side.**

 **Also, due to a sudden change in my schedule (a few of them, actually,) I may not be able to post new content for quite a while.**

 **Here's the next few chapters! Enjoy!**

Keima rushed to the park. It was normal at first glance, and looked like it did every day he passed by. What caught his sight was the blood trail leading into the wooded section of the park.

"So this isn't my imagination." Keima grimly thought. He felt the blood, finding out that it was fresh.

He quietly followed the trail, being sure not to be seen by any passerby. As he headed towards the woods, the trail grew thicker with blood,until...

Keima blinked.

...Until he saw a demon on the ground, with her rainment flickering weakly.

"Hey, are you alright?" He called out to her.

No response.

He walked to her and took her pulse, finding a weak but relatively stable heartbeat.

A glint caught his eye- in her tightly clinched hand was a box cutter with the Vintage emblem engraved on the handle.

Keima hesitated.


	4. Chapter 4

**I forgot to do the disclaimer, so I'll just add it here:**

 **I obviously do not own TWGOK or any of its characters. I do own the storyline, but that's it. I do this for the enjoyment of others and myself, and there is no other reason. I do not earn any money, or any sort of gain for that matter, as a result of this work. Any resemblance to any real person, living, dead, or imaginary, is purely coincidence, unless I say otherwise. Guys, just let me write in peace.  
**

Keima just stood there for a while, trying to see into the possible outcomes of the decisions before him. 

He made his choice. 

"Where to keep her safe..?" He wondered aloud. 

He had to keep this a secret from everyone, even Elsie. So where was a place no one would find, or even bother to look? 

... 

"The theater. " Keima thought out loud. 

It was perfect. No one would go out of their way to visit the "haunted" building. No one had any business in there anyways, so it was empty all of the time...Plus, people were forbidden to go there. The spirit chasm had been sealed, so no demon went there either. 

So Keima decided he would help this Vintage demon under the noses of the Loose Soul Team. 

As he was about to lift her, he noticed the bloodstain on her side. Using his jacket, he bandaged her cut and carried her to the abandoned school theater...

++[School]++

Elsie arrived just as the bell rang. Seeing that her Divine Brother was absent, she created a rainment clone of him. To the rest of the class, he was playing his PFP, oblivious to everything except his game. To Elsie and other demons, in Keima's place was a fat blob of jelly wearing glasses. Elsie noticed that both Ayumi and Chihiro were both stealing glances at "Keima," making Elsie wonder what Keima was up to. 

Ayumi stared at the blob of jelly sitting in Keima's seat. 

"What is that otamegane up to?" Ayumi wondered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Welcome back!**

 **I'm sorry for the delay in posting chapters... but here's some more! Thanks for the review(s), btw. I appreciate them very much.**

 **:3**

 **Happy reading!  
**

++[The Theater]++

Lune woke up with a jolt, realizing that she did not know where she was. She inspected her wound, only to find it cleaned and dressed. Her beloved boxcutter was on top of an empty crate nearby. She laid on a makeshift bed made out of a few old curtains and a dusty couch pillow.

Lune sat up, perplexed. "Who would want to help me, and why?" she thought. The notion of someone saving her...was somewhat foreign.

"I won't force you to stay," someone said, walking out of the darkness with PFP in hand.

Lune immediately sprang up, drew her boxcutter, then turned towards the figure walking towards her.

Keima showed no sign of fear at Lune's reaction. He continued walking. This guy, he really had guts.

"Wh-who are you?" Lune asked.

"I shouldn't be here right now. In fact, I'd be in serious trouble with New Hell if they find me aiding you." answered Keima in a neutral, expressionless tone.

Keima's fearlessness threw Lune off-guard.

She took a moment to analyze what she just heard and to inspect the man before her. He seemed...familiar, as if she should know him from somewhere. She withdrew her blade, but stayed alert.

"I'll see what information he has before I kill him," Lune thought to herself.

"Well," Lune began, "thank you for saving me anyways."

"I intend to rest here for a few days, then I plan to leave for elsewhere," she continued.

"Where?" questioned Keima.

"That...I am not sure of," replied Lune with a hint of sadness in her eyes. It was clear this was not a comfortable topic.

Keima said nothing at first. Instead, he stood there a moment watching her.

"I'm sure Vintage thinks you're dead right now," Keima said after a while.

Lune nodded. She was a bit surprised that this human was awareof Vintage, as if he had run into them before. On top of that, he was a buddy...the very people Vintage were sent to exterminate. What would make him do such a thing?

"Then again," it occurred to her, "this is no ordinary human." She glanced at the collar around his neck.

They stood for a while in silence...

"I assume you are hungry?" Keima suddenly asked her.

Lune said nothing. Actually, she hadn't eaten in two days...but how do you explain that to the guy who just rescued you?

"I'm fine," Lune replied curtly. She unconsciously twirled her boxcutter in her hand.

"I'll just leave some food here for you in case," Keima said after a while.

The bell rang, signaling the start of lunchtime for the school.

"What about you?" Lune asked.

Keima merely raised his PFP and said, "As long as I have my games, food means nothing to me."

"How strange," Lune thought.

Keima turned towards the door. "I'll be going to school now," he said.

"Also," he added, "I would suggest you stay here during the day, so no one discovers you."

Keima nodded goodbye and left, playing his PFP as he walked.

Lune started walking back towards a shelf full of old books when she saw something. Keima had left his school bento on a crate near the door.

Something clicked in Lune then, when she saw that lunch. It was if her thirst for blood had been quenched, though she hadn't killed anyone yet. She took the lunch and ate it, planning her course of action for the next few days.

++[School]++

Elsie spotted Keima sitting on a bench, playing his PFP as usual.

"Where were you?" Elsie asked him.

Keima looked at Elsie for a moment, as though she was unaware of something important.

"There was a sale on dating sims that only lasted a few hours," Keima explained, "I couldn't miss it."

In truth, that sale really did happen, but Keima knew that the games on sale were ones he had already conquered. He had known this ahead of time, of course.

Elsie sighed. "You never change, Kami Nii-Sama," Elsie said.

Keima didn't reply to that. He put down his PFP and stared at the sky, deep in thought.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Keima asked himself. "What route will I take? I've never seen this type of situation before!" he realized.


	6. Chapter 6

Hours passed. Keima had gone out to resume his daily life, taking care not to give the slightest indication that he was hiding something. Meanwhile, Lune busied herself with exploring the theater and cleaning some of it.

"I wonder if he's coming back soon," Lune thought, concern for her rescuer quietly surfacing.

She quickly shook off those thoughts.

"No," her inner self said,"I need to focus on my plans."

Try as she did, Lune couldn't focus.

Keima had left some food for her before he left for home- some dumplings and other snacks. She should be safe, he said, from any threat to her existence. Still, it mildly bothered Lune that she was alone in the theater as night fell. What if Vintage surrounded her, or the Loose Soul Team? There was only one way out. Putting her troubled thoughts aside, she went to sleep on her makeshift bed.

...

The next morning, Lune woke up to Keima sitting in the corner, playing his PFP and giving no sign that he was aware she was awake.

"I got you some breakfast," said Keima without looking up from his PFP. He nodded towards another crate used as a table where a steaming soup of ramen sat.

She went over and ate quietly, taking the time to read Keima, or at least analyze him. He didn't seem like much. All he did was play his PFP. Still, he knew about New Hell- who was his demon buddy? One thing was certain: there was more to Keima than what could be seen on the outside.

"Well, I'm going out to school," Keima said while standing up.

Lune nodded and watched him walk out, unsure of what might happen next.

++[New Hell]++

New orders from Satyr came in through the whispers and rumors of Vintage. The demon who successfully killed the dreaded "God of Conquest" and brought back his body will become second in command of Satyr...or so it was said. New Hell was flooded with reports of Vintage movements, and most of them surrounded one particular area...

Maijima High.

++[School]++

It was a routine day in Keima's class. Elsie drew fire engines on her notes while Keima played his PFP, apparently ignoring the class around him. Since he and Elsie were assigned for cleaning duty that day, they stayed after school by themselves. By sunset they finished their duties and went to pack up. Keima played his dating sims on the rooftop while Elsie cleaned the school with ease (thanks to her magic broomstick.) 

He was about to go back downstairs when a beam of light shot down from the sky. 

"What is this?" Keima exclaimed as the beam grew larger and surrounded him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello again readers! I apologize for the choppiness of these next few chapters.**

 **You see, conflict chapters aren't my specialties.**

 **Kodaka, here is the struggle I promised you.**

The ray split to form a pyramid around him, trapping him within the prism of light.

A trio of Vintage demons surrounded him. They would bring him alive, they decided, and get their promised promotion.

Slowly, the pyramid filled with a clear liquid, preserving everything inside, until Keima was frozen in the magical goo.

The demons were about to transport him to New Hell when the pyramid exploded in a burst of blue flames. Keima fell on the floor and was temporarily knocked out.

Haqua floated down from the sky, her Scythe of Testament coated in blue embers

"Not today," she frowned slightly at them.

Angered, the three demons pulled out their swords and charged at Haqua. The noise of the confrontation brought Elsie upstairs, who to her horror, watched the fight begin. One of the Vintage demons shot a beam at Haqua, but it missed and hit a wall instead. The wall exploded with a loud bang, sending rubble flying through everywhere.

Realizing that Elsie was the weakest of the two demons, the Vintage demons charged at her. Haqua used her scythe to stop two demons from reaching her, but the third continued to advance towards Elsie. Elsie tried to flee, but soon found herself in a corner, where Keima lay nearby, still unconscious.

"Your rainment is as good as mine!" The demon hissed as it pointed its sword at Elsie for the finishing stike.

"Elsie!" Haqua screamed as she defended herself from the remaining two demons' strikes.

The sword stabbed flesh.

++[Theater]++

The sun set above the theater.

BOOM!  
The explosion startled Lune from her nap.

Immediately, Keima came to her mind. Was he in danger?

She quickly grabbed her boxcutter and flew towards the school, but not before casting another cloaking spell on herself.

As Lune approached the school, she saw Vintage members in a clash with two demons from the Loose Soul Team. One was familiar to Lune, due to the fact that she had almost killed that demon. Keima, the one who rescued Lune, lay motionless in a corner with the other demon, most likely his buddy.

Meanwhile, more of Vintage began approaching the area, reinforcing the three originally there. The people on the roof were not aware of them.

Lune didn't know what to do. Would she help Keima, or flee for her safety? For the first time in years her hands started sweating. Lune realized that she was afraid, much to her dismay. All she could do was watch as one of Vintage headed for the demon who was stuck in a corner...

...  
Elsie braced for the attack and closed her eyes. She waited for the sword to strike...

It never came.

Slowly, Elsie opened her eyes.  
First she looked to her right, and she saw Keima stand up with a jolt, his eyes and mouth wide open with shock. Elsie followed his line of sight to see...

Haqua.


	8. Chapter 8

++[Flashback]++

"Elsie!" Haqua screamed while holding off the other two Vintage demons.

The sword-wielding demon got closer to Elsie.

Haqua quickly stunned the two enemies with her scythe, then ran towards Elsie to save her.

But she wouldn't reach her in time running. Summoning all of her energy, she cast 20 movement spells and flew towards the approaching demon.

Elsie cowered in fear.

Haqua flew in front of the demon and started swinging at him with her scythe. The demon changed focus, directing its attacks on Haqua instead. Haqua's attacks merely scratched the demon's armor. Soon, Haqua found herself struggling to defend herself. An idea came to her.  
She pulled back from the demon, as if to flee. The Vintage demon lowered its defenses and charged at Haqua with its sword. As it got close, Haqua suddenly pulled out a dagger and stabbed the demon between the armor sections. But this was not the only fatal hit.

As Haqua stabbed the demon, part of the sword sliced into her stomach as well.

The Vintage demon winced in pain, then fell backwards to the floor.  
Haqua inspected the sword wound in her belly, then turned towards Elsie.

++[End of flashback]++

Elsie tearfully looked at Haqua, who smiled faintly at Elsie before collapsing herself. Her scythe fell beside her, coming to rest beside its beloved owner.

Then all was still.

 **A/N: I hope you don't hate me for this... but I promise you- this is not the last time we see Haqua.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Getting dark, isn't it?**

Keima was the first one to move, walking up to Haqua. A shadow crossed over his face, leaving only his mouth visible. His eyes may as well have been as dead as the demon in front of him...

Elsie simply sat there, terrified. She cried softly, trying to imagine that the day had never happened...but it didn't work. Reality was in both of their faces.

Suddenly, Elsie's loose soul sensor went off, shocking her from her trance and making her wonder where the soul was. Meanwhile, Keima continued to stand over Haqua, as if he was holding a silent vigil. Haqua's spirit sensor activated then.

The loose soul suddenly came up from the ground, immediately flying towards Keima, and possessed him.

He stood there as he did before- stiff, and unmoving. It was almost as if nothing happened. Then, slowly, he picked up Haqua's bloodstained scythe.

At this moment the other Vintage demons hiding decided to make their move. The burst onto the roof, swords drawn. Keima slowly turned around, gripping the scythe tightly...

Lune watched as the loose soul entered Keima. Hidden in the trees, she was safe from the Vintage demons sneaking around the school. The shock of witnessing a demon die in front of her was still setting in. Just then, Vintage made their move, surrounding Keima and his demon buddy. Based on her observations they had no chance against Vintage...not by themselves, at least. Maybe if...

She could hold back her instincts no longer. She rushed towards the roof, boxcutter in hand, through the night. Upon reaching the rooftop she started slashing at the Vintage demons there. They flinched, surprised at Lune's sudden appearance, then they began attacking her instead of Keima. Lune defended herself from her former colleagues' attacks.

Keima looked at the scythe in his hand, bloodstained with its previous owner's blood. He felt empowered and strengthened by holding the scythe.  
Keima suddenly burst into bright red flames. Lune and the others froze and stared at Keima. By the power of the spirit within him, he created a rainment of his own, and then the spirit took control of him.

Keima swung at the Vintage demons surrounding him.

...

Lune watched in shock at the scene unfolding before her. Vintage, seeing Keima transform, focused their firepower on him. They rushed past Lune. Their mission came first: kill Keima.

As "Keima" ran towards the demons, he slashed at them, killing some instantly. He moved with superhuman speed, such the demons could barely keep track of him. Keima's rainment viciously grabbed at demons and crushed them, as if it had a mind of its own. The other demons attacked him with swords, spears, and other weapons, but the soul within Keima controlled him well. All attacks were easily dodged by him, and no spell could work. Keima had become an indestructible killing machine. Realizing this, Vintage began to flee, but Keima wasn't finished with them.

"None of Vintage will return to New Hell alive," Keima hissed, his voice alive with anger and hatred. No one had seen Keima so...murderous.

Lune gazed at him in horror. She had known the joy of bloodshed, but this...was not the same. His was a pure bloodlust, regardless of whose blood it was.

But the bloodthirsty monster in front of her wasn't Keima. That much was clear. His eyes glazed over and glowed a dark red...the shade of blood. The soul infecting him had fed off Keima's grief and quickly gained enough power to manipulate him. Meanwhile, both Elsie and Haqua's spirit sensors continued to beep. Lune's spirit sensor activated as well, despite being out of active duty for so long.  
Keima sprang into the air, scythe in hand, and began viciously cutting down the Vintage demons one by one. Keima laughed, but it was a laughter of madness. Keima's clothes, naturally maroon, were now stained a brilliant red from his victims' freshly spilled blood.

After a short while, all the Vintage demons who didn't escape lay dead on the floor. In one night, Keima had cut Vintage's members down to about half of what they were originally. Keima flew back down to the rooftop, where Elsie cowered in fear once again. Things were starting to look better, but then the loose spirit spotted Lune. Keima charged at her, not aware of who he was attacking.

"All of Vintage must pay..." Keima murmured.

Lune reacted quickly as Keima lunged at her. She was ready to kill him then, with her boxcutter at the ready, but something made her hesitate. The loose soul took advantage of this, and quickly had Keima tackle Lune to the ground. Keima pulled out a dagger- the very same dagger Haqua used, and held it to Lune's neck. Lune searched desperately for a way out, but could find none. Yes, this was the end for Lune, to be killed by the first person she had finally come to trust.

The hunter and prey met eyes, and Keima paused.

Something ignited in Keima's heart. His eyes cleared, as did his mind.

His hand hesitated, the blade an inch from Lune's neck, then it withdrew. The loose soul burst out of Keima and flew away, but both demons were more concerned about the person in front of them.

Keima's flames went out, and his rainment dissolved into the air... His hands dropped to his side, the knife clattering to the floor beside him.

He fell over, unconscious, and did not respond to Elsie's desperate attempts to wake him.

Lune silently stood over Keima. Once again, she was at a loss for what to do. She flew off into the night, leaving Elsie alone with her brother in the moonlight.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi readers! Feel free to comment- they help me fix future chapters that have already been written.**

 **The next few chapters may be somewhat boring...sorry.**

 **And also, thanks for continuing to follow this story! I appreciate your time!**

 **:)**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

***###***{10}

The Loose Soul Team arrived at the scene soon after to remove all evidence of the struggle that took place there. After asking Elsie a few questions about that night, they concluded that it was a coordinated attack on Keima. The LST was too spread out to be able to send any assistance in time. Haqua, who was the nearest demon, went of her own will. She had come just in time to save him and Elsie from certain death, but died in the line of duty while defending them. Haqua's buddy had been found beheaded in her sleep. Luckily, New Hell was able to erase all memory of her from every human who knew her. New Hell lost one of their finest demons that night.

What they failed to find an explanation for was the loose soul that entered Keima. It was unheard of for a soul to infest a male victim...it was as if this particular soul chose Keima as its target, then left after completing its task.  
"Simply put, what happened tonight involved forces beyond our understanding," Dokorou Skull told Elsie and the others.  
Elsie made sure to leave out Lune's role in that night. It was sort of a repayment for helping Keima, as odd as it would seem.

++[Keima's House]++

Elsie watched over her brother anxiously, checking on him every half-hour or so. Their mother was out on a trip to a convention for business owners such as herself, so she wouldn't be back for at least another week.  
Elsie divided her time between keeping the house tidy and caring for her brother, who still hadn't woken up since that night.

Lune disappeared. She came after the Loose Soul Team left to accompany her to Keima's house, then she left without saying a word. As to where she went, Elsie had no idea where she would go. She simply vanished into the night...

++[Theater]++

Lune sat down on her bed, deep in thought.

Would she help Keima to repay for all he did for her, or disappear before his demon buddy gave her away?

Lune had always wanted to advance within Satyr's ranks. This was her chance to achieve it. All she had to do was kill Elsie, and her dream of leading Satyr would become a reality.

Then again, this night made her reconsider what she really wanted. And how would she explain her actions on that rooftop?

Deep down, Lune had already made her decision.

She stood up and went to a table with papers on it.

Using her rainment, she tried to figure out what was wrong with Keima by analyzing the energies present when Keima's loose soul left. Beside her on a table was the official report released by thert Loose Soul Team.

"None of this makes sense," Lune sighed, another late night taking its toll on her.

She stood up and walked to the window. It was a blue moon that night, the first she'd seen in years. The forest around the woods was alive with wildlife. The moonlight reflected off Lune's eyes as she stared out into the night, her every thought focused on curing Keima.

Written 8/1

Cleaned 8/3

Confirmed 8/17


	11. Chapter 11

***+11+***

++[Keima's House]++

"It's not working," Rimyuel said as she tried a very complex healing spell on Keima.

Elsie nodded sadly. It had been days since she last saw Keima in his usual self... Keima was hiding something from her, but now it seemed unlikely that she would find out what it was. She yearned to hear his voice again, even if he was complaining about her...

For every school day since Keima fell into his coma, Elsie used her rainment to create a substitute in his place.

Haqua's death had taken a heavy toll on Elsie. She felt lonely more than ever, with both of her closest friends gone...

A different atmosphere settled over the Katsuragi household- one of pain and yearning, with a hint of hopelessness.

"Well," Rimyuel said, "I'll be heading back to New Hell to run some tests."

Elsie followed her to the door.

"By the way," Rimyuel said, "Have you tried asking the Goddesses?"

Elsie immediately brightened up upon hearing that idea.

Elsie replied, "I haven't thought of that yet! Thanks!"

Rimyuel nodded goodbye and left, leaving Elsie to wonder how to gather the goddesses together.

Kanon had a busy schedule. Every day she drifted from recording sessions to film studios and interviews. There was hardly any time for school- not that it was a problem. Kanon had high marks on each subject even though she was absent most of the year, astounding her teachers and her crew.

Today was one of those rare days when her schedule was somewhat empty, so she decided to go to school. As she arrived, crowds of fans lined the hallways trying to get her attention, but Kanon had only one fan in mind.

Keima.

Despite Apollo's constant teasing, Kanon still continued to love him, especially after the "Goddess" incident. She somehow managed to reach the classroom despite the crowds that followed her. As she took her seat in the back of the room, she scoured the desks for Keima's. When she found it, she saw a blobby mass with glasses instead, and to her surprise no one else seemed to notice.

Even Nikaido-Sensei didn't seem to care. She only stared at the blob once or twice, then glanced at Elsie for a bit.

"I wonder where Keima is," Kanon thought.

Elsie took this opportunity to walk up to Kanon.

"Hi," Elsie said, without her usual excitement of talking to her favorite idol.

"Hi Elsie! Is Keima okay? Kanon asked.

"Well..." Elsie started.

"I see he isn't here today. Is something wrong?" Kanon continued.

Elsie paused for a moment, surprised that Kanon saw through the rainment clone, then decided to tell her what happened.

"Keima was attacked by Vintage a few nights ago, and he hasn't woken up since," Elsie confessed.

Kanon sat there, greatly saddened, then quickly asked, "Is there anything I can to help?"

Elsie nodded. "New Hell is busy trying to come up with a cure, but I think maybe the Goddesses can help," she answered.

Apollo took over Kanon.

"Have you talked to the other hosts yet?" Apollo asked.

"I'll try contacting them today," Elsie said.

Apollo asked, "When do you want me to come?"

"Tomorrow night," Elsie replied.

The bell rang, signaling the start of the day. Apollo went back inside her host. Elsie said goodbye to Kanon and went back to her seat. Another school day began, with Elsie trying figure out how to find the Goddess hosts by the end of the day **.**

 **...**

++[Theater]++

Lune woke up at noon. She ate a late breakfast consisting of a sandwich and coffee (with loads of sugar, of course.)

As usual, the theater was silent except for her movements within. Books written in Hellian and ancient scrolls piled up on multiple crates and shelves lining the walls. The official report from the Loose Soul Team's investigation sat on a table of its own, with certain sections circled and highlighted. She was flipping through an encyclopedia about ancient spirits when one caught her eye-

 **Loose Soul #264448790**

Feeds off subject's grief and uses it to manipulate the victim. Has extremely violent tendencies towards whoever hurt the victim...almost as if an extension of that victim's feelings. However, upon satisfying the victim's desires (often in an extreme manner,) it leaves its host in a coma-like condition, requiring ancient magic that is now illegal.

The remedy for this, healing spell #207794654, is not known by any registered demon healers and is outlawed in New Hell.

The victim is forced to stay in this state until a suitable spell-caster is found. If none can be found, the victim is trapped in a coma forever.

Illegal ancient magic? That was no problem for someone like Lune, who already had much experience with ancient spells. She flipped to the spell in another book.

 **Healing Spell #207794654**

 **WARNING! For reference only! This spell has been outlawed. Anyone caught doing this incantation will be jailed.**

 _"Morning Grace"_

Like the powerful healing rays of the morning sun, this charm expels the darkness out of all people/demons. The spell is used for expelling the effects of ancient spirits. Due to its extremely high energy usage, multiple spell-casters have died in attempting to cast this charm. Some have resorted to using others as sacrifices to fulfill the demands of this spell. As a result, New Hell has banned this charm, and no registered demons are known to know this spell.

If in desperate measures, it is recommended that one or more heavenly beings aid in the charm, so the effects to not backfire upon the caster. Be aware that attempting this charm with less than three people will result in the deaths of both the spellcaster and the intended target, as well as anyone giving their energy.

Lune looked up from the spell book and realized something.

"I can do this spell, but how am I supposed to get the Goddesses' help?" she wondered.


	12. Chapter 12

***+12+***

++[Lunchtime, HS]++

Elsie ate her lunch quickly, then headed to class 2-A to find Yui and Tsukiyo. She found Tsukiyo in the Astronomy Club room, having a quiet cup of tea with Vulcan (Luna.)

Upon seeing Elsie, Luna floated up to her with scissors in hand and glared at her.

"What does that womanizing dog want with Tsukiyo?" Vulcan growled.

Elsie pulled back in fear.

"Actually, I came here because I needed you," Elsie murmured.

That quieted Vulcan. "What is it you need then?" Luna asked while sitting down.

"Vintage came after us a few nights ago, and Keima hasn't woken up since," she explained urgently.

"And I presume you need our help to cure him?" Luna asked in a mild tone.

"Can you?" Elsie pleaded.

"I'll do it, but for Tsukiyo's sake, just to clarify." Luna answered.

"Thank you so much!" Elsie smiled a bit. "Meet me at Keima's house tomorrow night." Elsie said.

"I'll be there," was the answer Luna gave before going back to her tea.

Tsukiyo, who had been quiet the whole time, asked Elsie,"Will Keima be okay?" She blushed slightly and looked at her teacup.

Elsie smiled sadly and said, "He should be fine if I can find the cure."

Then she said goodbye to both of them and left them to their tea party.

"Time to find Yui," Elsie thought to herself.

++[About halfway through lunch, HS]++

Elsie walked into the Class 2-A classroom to find Yui.

It would seem that Yui found her first.

"Elsie!" Yui yelled from across the room, "How's my Darling?"

Upon hearing the word 'darling' everyone looked at Yui, then Elsie.

"Can we take this conversation somewhere else?" Elsie asked Yui.

++[Rooftop]++

Elsie looked around, remembering the horrors that happened here only a few days ago...  
"So, what does my Darling ask of me?" Yui asked suddenly.

"About Keima..." Elsie started.

Yui saw Elsie's worried face and quieted down.

"Vintage attacked us a few days ago, and Keima hasn't woken up since," she explained.

Yui took a moment to process this...

Then she said, "Of course I'll help! I'll do anything for my darling!"

Elsie sighed, relieved that she didn't have to ask.

"When do you want me to come over?" Yui asked.

"I'm telling the other hosts to meet at Keima's house tomorrow night, if that's okay for you," Elsie answered.

"We'll be there!" Yui said cheerfully.

"By the way," she asked, "Are you coming to band practice after school today?"

Elsie had forgotten due to the recent chain of events.

"I'll go today," Elsie replied.

They said their goodbyes and headed back to their classrooms. Elsie arrived in time for the bell. She looked back towards Kanon's desk, only to find that she had left for another recording session.

"Time to finish this school day." Elsie said to herself.

Elsie never noticed the demon observing her from a distance.

++[2-B Pencils' Room]++

After the practice, Miyako immediately left for her cram school. Yui left after saying goodbye to everyone, leaving only Elsie, Chihiro, and Ayumi in the room.

"Great work today, Ellie!" Chihiro cheered.

"Yeah, nice work!" Ayumi added.

"Aw, thanks guys," Elsie said.

Chihiro left to go shopping for musical supplies.

"Before you go Ayumi..." Elsie started.

Ayumi turned around and asked Elsie, "What's wrong?" she inquired.

Elsie paused for a moment. "The people who went after the goddesses came after Nii-Sama," she said after a while.

Ayumi listened intently.

"Something went wrong, and now Nii-Sama can't wake up," Elsie explained.

Ayumi said nothing for a moment. She seemed very deep in thought.

"I'll head over there, but it's not because I love Keima or anything," Ayumi looked away, blushing slightly.

Elsie brightened up a little. "Thank you so much, Ayumi!" she said.

Ayumi left for a track meet later that day.

Elsie, meanwhile, started walking towards the library.

Meanwhile, the mysterious demon from before followed her from the trees, a cloak concealing its identity.

Written 8/2

Cleaned 8/3

Confirmed 8/17


	13. Chapter 13

***###***{13}

 **A/N: I apologize for the late update. My life got busy very quickly. So here's what's happening.**

 **++[Abandoned Theater]++**

 **Anyway, I have the majority of this story finished and ready for publishing...except...they lost their clearance to publish a while ago...**

 **I'll admit it- I was lazy when writing the past two chapters...and now I'm in the middle of cleaning the upcoming chapters.**

 **Considering that I have to balance this with school and marching band, I doubt this will be quick.**

 **On top of that, I can only work on this for fifteen minutes _a week._**

 **Sorry, folks, but I'll try.**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

++[The Library]++

Elsie walked in. As expected, Shiori was the only person there. She started into space, an open notebook in front of her.

"Shiori?" Elsie called.

++[Outer Space]++

Simone sat on a rock, her writing tablet beside her on another boulder. Above her perch, the 400-year war continued to rage, with spaceships of different shapes and sizes shooting lasers at each other. Outer space lit up like there was a firework show, but there was no celebration here- only bitterness.

Simone sighed. No one even remembered how the war started. All they knew was that there was no surrendering to the other side. Though she was a space reporter, Simone doubted if anyone cared anymore. Life went on...

A beam of light shot from the sky, and someone gently descended from the ray. Elsie walked out from the beam and went to Simone.

"Shiori?" Elsie called out to her.

...

++[Library]++

Shiori woke from her daydream to see Elsie standing in front of her.

"..."

"Shiori, Keima needs your help," Elsie pleaded.

"...Umm...wh-what's wrong..?" Shiori studdered.

Elsie thought for a moment.

"Keima is stuck in a deep sleep, and only the Goddesses can free him," she explained.

A Sleeping Beauty-style scenario came to Shiori's mind, which made her blush.

At that moment, Minerva took control of Shiori. She looked around for a bit, then realized with a shock that she was visible. She cowered behind a book, and peeped out from behind it.

"Don't worry," Elsie smiled kindly, "your sisters are going too."

That seemed to satisfy Minerva, who nodded and went back inside Shiori.

"..."

"Thanks, Shiori. I'm sure Keima would appreciate your help," Elsie said before turning to leave.

The possibility of seeing Keima again overwhelmed Shiori, who fell into another daydream. Let's save that one for another time, shall we?

...

Keima woke up to a completely white room. The floor, if it was even there, blended in with the walls. The only distinguishing feature was a door. It was made of a dark wood, and its doorknob was shaped like a skull. He went to open it when a hand caught his shoulder.

"I wouldn't open that door," a very familiar voice said.

Keima froze, trying to grasp what he had just heard.

He turned around slowly, making every effort to make sense of what stood before him, or to be more accurate, who.

"Haqua?" Keima rubbed his eyes.

Haqua smiled at Keima. It was the first time in a while since Keima had ever seen her smile like that...

She wore her regular clothes, and on her left arm the section chief band continued to be displayed proudly. It was as if Haqua had never died.

"What are you doing here?" Keima asked. "I thought you were..."

"Dead?" Haqua answered, "Of course I'm dead."

"Then why are you here? Where am I?" Keima questioned.

"You are at the border of life and death," was the answer Haqua gave, "and I'm here because you absorbed some of my spirit from my scythe."

"That door then..." Keima gestured to the door, "if I open it, I'll die?"

"Yup!" Haqua said lightly.

Keima stared at her. She seemed too cheerful to be dead. He continued to look at her in disbelief.

"You know," Haqua looked at him, "we're inside your mind right now. Anything you imagine can materialize in here."

"Is that so?" Keima smirked.

At the very moment, a PFP and a bench appeared in front of them, much to Keima's joy.

"Really?" Haqua sighed.

No response. Keima had already entered another dimension...his gaming world.

Haqua took a seat next to Keima and stared at the ceiling. She blushed a little after realizing that she was alone with Keima.

"So what now?" Haqua asked Keima.

The room began to transform, as if to answer her question. The walls melted into the ground, and the landscape slowly changed into a flowery field. Cherry blossoms from nearby trees blew around in the light breeze. The stars in the night sky reflected off a clear pond nearby. The doorway stood where it did before, still closed but just as tempting.

"Wow..." Haqua gasped as she watched fireflies fly over the pond.

Keima continued playing his PFP, oblivious to the change of scenery around him.

Haqua stood up and walked around for a while, enjoying the scenery. After a while, she sat back down on the bench beside Keima and stared at the moon.

"The stars are pretty tonight," Haqua noted.

 **A/N: [I loved imagining this chapter.]  
**


	14. Chapter 14

***###***{14}

 **By the way, cheers to my sister, who reads my chapters and approves them for publishing. She made the epic cover page for this story.**

 **I love it.**

Tenri leaned on her front gate. She was nervous because she hadn't seen Keima for a few days. Elsie was the only person who ever left or entered the house. Diana snuck over there once, but didn't say anything to Tenri about what she saw.

"It's bad," was the only thing Tenri could get Diana to say on the subject. Any further prodding silenced her.

Tenri finally mustered the courage to ask Elsie today. She anxiously waited for Elsie to come home.

...

Elsie walked home. She saw Tenri waiting at the entrance. Tenri didn't seem to be paying attention, since she continued to stare at a light post in front of her.

The hooded demon who had been following Elsie stayed behind a considerable distance, unbeknownst to Elsie.

"Tenri!" Elsie heard Diana call out. Tenri woke from her daze and stared at Elsie.

"..."

"Eh? Is something wrong?" Elsie asked her.

"...Is...K-K-Keima-Kun...okay..?" Tenri studdered.

Elsie gave Tenri a sad look. "No," she answered.

Tenri held back tears upon having her worst fears confirmed.

Diana took over from there.

"Have you tried getting my other sisters to help?" Diana asked Elsie.

Elsie nodded. There seemed to be no explanation necessary for what they were talking about.

"We're planning to meet here tomorrow night," Elsie told Diana.

"What about Vintage?" Diana asked.

"I'll try to get the Loose Soul Team to send some demons to protect us," Elsie replied.

"Sounds good to me," Diana said.

She went back into hiding, giving Tenri control of her body again.

"Will you...take good care of Keima-Kun?" Tenri asked.

Elsie smiled a little. "I'll try my best to keep him safe," she assured Tenri.

That seemed to satisfy Tenri. She said goodbye and went back to her house.

Elsie went into the café to clean it up a bit. There was a knock on the door. She opened it to find Rimyuel.

"Elsie," Rimyuel said,"we found a possible cure."

Elsie was overjoyed.

"But there is one problem with this cure," Rimyuel continued.

"Eh?" Elsie sat down.

"The spell needed to cure Keima...had been outlawed for centuries. No one knows how to do it." Rimyuel stated grimly.

"..."

"The only people who would possibly know these types of spells...would be members of Vintage." Rimyuel said.

"So..." Elsie repeated,"only Vintage members can heal Keima?"

Rimyuel nodded. "But since their mission right now is to kill Keima, I doubt any of them would be willing to do so," She concluded.

Elsie thought of Lune.

"By the way," Elsie asked, "would you be able to get us some guards tomorrow night?"

Rimyuel nodded. "I'll see what I can do," she answered.

 **A/N: At the time of this posting, no further chapters have been confirmed for posting. Please be patient as I continue to make them to your satisfaction.**

 **Sorry Kodaka, if I screwed up Tenri.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello again, fellow TWGOK fans!**

 **We're getting to that point where life gets busy for most of us...myself included.**

 **I will not be able to post as much as I used to, which was already infrequent to begin with...**

 **However, I plan on finishing this fanfiction by late November. There isn't much left, but I'll reduce chapters if I have to. I also have to work on the split ending...**

 **The sequel is currently in the planning stages, and may not even come out. If by chance it does, most likely I will release it early December, just in time for winter.**

 **Presenting to you the latest TLWTD chapters!**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

***###***{15}

"Ahh..." Elsie sighed as she swept the floor.

The bell rang as a customer walked in and took a seat.

Elsie walked over, ready to take her order.

"One coffee, with heaps of sugar." the customer said.

Elsie left to get the coffee in the kitchen.

"How will I track down that Vintage demon?" Elsie wondered to herself.

"Why would you trust her?" A voice in her head asked her.

"I don't, but I've never seen a Vintage demon help Keima like that...she seemed serious on saving him last time." Elsie answered.

The coffee started steaming.

"Did it occur to you where Keima was that one day, when he disappeared in the park?" the voice responded.

"Well, I could use my rainment to retrace his steps..." Elsie thought aloud.

She took the coffee out to the customer.

"Anything else?" Elsie asked with a cheerful smile.

"Nothing else, thank you." was the reply.

The customer finished her coffee and left. Elsie went to clean the table when she froze.

Folded within a napkin was a Hellish coin, and a note.

 _Thanks for the coffee._

 _-Lune_

Elsie held the note in her hands. For once she finally understood Keima.

She could see the ending.

++[School]++

The school's lunch break started with Elsie heading up to the rooftop. It was the only quiet place she could think of.

She stared out at the empty space around her. New Hell had done a good job repairing the physical damage Vintage had caused, but it had still scarred Elsie. Memories of that fateful night came rushing to her mind.

...Why did it have to happen to her?

Elsie sat down on a bench under some trees and started eating her lunch.

"Hard to believe, isn't it, that such a mess took place here so recently." a voice said behind her.

Elsie cringed and turned around slowly upon hearing that.

Lune sat on another bench twirling her box cutter in her hands.

They stared at one another for a moment...

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you," Lune said.

She walked up to Elsie.

"I want to help your human buddy wake from his sleep," Lune said.

Elsie was unsure. Here was the perfect opportunity to wake her brother, but was it a reliable one?

"So..." Lune's voice pulled Elsie out of her thoughts, "do you need a spell caster, or not?"

Elsie seemed hesitant to answer. "Why do you want to help him?" she asked her.

Lune looked at Elsie. "Why not?"

"But...aren't you supposed to..."

Lune smiled. "Kill him? Nah, he's not my type. Besides, I owe him one."

Elsie looked down at the ground.

"How can I trust you?" Elsie asked quietly.

Lune took a moment to think about her answer.

"Well, Vintage hates me at the moment," Lune reminded her.

"... But how will I know you won't kill Nii-Sama, or tell someone else where to find him?" Elsie persisted.

"Because," Lune answered, "he is the only person I can turn to."

Elsie went quiet.

"I promise you," Lune held out her hand to Elsie," I won't let any harm come to him as long as I live."

This sudden oath surprised Elsie. She processed Lune's offer for a second, then shook her hand.

"I'll have to check with the goddesses first," Elsie said,"but thank you helping us."

Lune looked back into the woods. "It's my pleasure." she replied.

The bell rang.

Elsie turned towards the door. "I'll be seeing you soon, then." she told Lune as she disappeared down the stairs.

Lune kept her gaze on the horizon.

"I wonder if this will work," Lune thought out loud.

For once, she found that she was actually worried about someone.

 **A/N: Thank you Kodaka for your suggestion! I found it very helpful.**

 **This conversation was a pain to write, though...**

 **Totally worth it. X3**


	16. Chapter 16

***###***{16}

++[Night, Keima's House]++

The Goddesses made a circle around Keima.

Diana stood at the foot of the bed. Mars and Apollo stood on either side of her. Mercury stood beside Keima, and Vulcan sat on a chair beside her. Minerva sat on the ground beside Apollo.

"So what we're going to do," Diana explained to Elsie, "is we're going to enter Keima's mind and try and wake him from inside."

"Also," Apollo added, "we're going to enter his dream world, which I'm mild interested in."

Diana turned to Elsie. "You won't be able to come with us. Are you okay with that?" She asked her.

Elsie stood up from Keima's chair. "That's fine," she answered.

The Jupiter sisters turned their attantion back to Keima. They joined hands and started glowing...

A ring of light formed around Keima, then a ball of light formed in the middle of it. Holograms of ancient Hellian characters started floating around the air. The ball of light grew larger, filling the room with blinding light...

When the glare cleared, Elsie looked around the room. The Goddesses had vanished, leaving her alone with Keima.

++[Keima's imagination]++

The sun rose over the flower field. Keima sat on his bench, his PFP sat dormant on his lap. He watched the sun light up the field around him...

"I wonder," Haqua said from behind him,"if this is your first time looking at the sun rising."

Keima said nothing.

Haqua looked at the doorway standing by itself. It was still closed, but just as tempting.

"Just by opening that door," Haqua thought to herself," Keima can die."

Another door materialized in front of them. Keima and Haqua inspected it intently.

This one had writing all over its doorframe, and it was painted completely white.

"...Where does this door lead?" Keima asked Haqua.

"I've never seen this one before," Haqua replied," and I can't read this language."

The door opened.

Keima and Haqua stared at the door in wonder.

Diana walked out, as did Mercury, Apollo, and the other sisters. They took a moment to gaze at their surroundings, then turned to Keima. Haqua leaned on a tree nearby and listened.

"Wow, nice place!" Apollo grinned.

Diana glared at Apollo, who laughed a bit in response.

"You know, we took a massive risk coming here tonight," Diana looked at Keima.

"Katsuragi. Carry me." Vulcan commanded him.

Everyone else face-palmed themselves.

Keima ignored Vulcan.

"So," he turned to the other goddesses,"how do I get out of here?"

They stayed quiet for a moment.

"Umm...you see," Minerva spoke up, "the loose soul that entered you left you in a coma."

Hearing Minerva speak gave her sisters the nudge they needed.

Diana looked at Keima. "The only way out is a spell that New Hell outlawed," she said grimly.

"So, like, no one knows how to do it," Mars concluded.

Keima sighed. "Is there any other way around?"

"As my sister previously said," Vulcan replied,"this spell is the only remedy."

"What if..." Mercury yawned.

Her sisters looked at her.

"What if Vintage knows how to do it?" Mercury suggested.

"But still, how are we supposed to get one of them to help?" Diana asked. "If you forgot, their goal is to kill us and take over the world," she reminded them.

Keima was deep in thought.

"I think I know someone who will," Keima muttered.

He explained his encounter with Lune.

"WHAT?" Apollo looked at Keima in disbelief, "of all the people you had to rescue, it had to be HER?"

"It isn't wise to trust your enemies," Mars stated.

Minerva hid behind Diana.

"Well," Keima responded,"do any of you have a better alternative?"

The Jupiter sisters went silent,

"How do you know she will help?" Diana asked him after a while.

"I don't, but she's all I have." Keima answered calmly.

"She stabs hard, you know," Apollo said.

...

As the goddesses went into the doorway back to Earth, Diana lingered behind them.

"Where can I find this demon?" she asked Keima.

"Don't bother," Keima replied. "If she doesn't want to be found, she won't," he explained.

"By the way," Keima started.

Diana stopped walking.

"Tell Elsie to hang in there." he said casually.

Diana smiled.

"I hope this plan works," she told him as she walked into the doorway.

"Me too," Keima said under his breath.

Haqua walked up to Keima.

"You know I've fought that demon from Vintage before, right?" she mentioned to him.

"Maybe," Keima answered as he stared into the sky.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Due to the need to extend this story, I may no longer be able to uphold my two-chapter updates. Sorry, but reality is mean.

The goddesses walked out of the door into Keima's bedroom. Once Diana left the door in disappeared into dust.

"I still can't believe we need a Vintage demon's help," Apollo grumbled.

Elsie sat up and looked at them expectantly.

"We couldn't do anything to wake Katsuragi," Diana informed her.

Elsie sighed.

"Before we left, he wanted to tell you to hang in there," Diana said with a slight smile.

Her sisters looked at Elsie.

"So, when will we meet again?" Apollo asked.

"What day is it today?" Mars asked Minerva.

"Tuesday." she answered.

"Well, we shouldn't do this on a weekday," Mercury yawned.

"Yeah," Vulcan agreed, "weekends are better so we have more time."

"We'll also need an extra day to prepare ourselves," Mars said.

"How about Sunday night?" Elsie suggested.

The Jupiter sisters nodded.

"We'll hide within our hosts until then," Diana told Elsie.

The Goddesses murmured in agreement.

"By the way, I got a Vintage demon to help us," Elsie said cheerfully.

Apollo froze. Diana ignored her and looked at Elsie.

"By chance," Diana asked Elsie,"is this demon named...Lune?"

Elsie nodded happily, "Yup!"

"Interesting," Diana noted.

"Is she reliable?" Mars questioned.

"As far as I know, yes," the demon answered.

Apollo stood there and fumed. "What does Keima see in her?" she angrily muttered to herself.

"Calm down, Apollo." Mercury yawned.

Vulcan was somewhat upset as well. "More people to keep an eye on," she glowered.

Minerva hid quietly behind Diana again.

"Alright," Diana said despite bickering going on around them,"do tell her we're meeting on Sunday to do the charm."

They talked for a bit about their plans, then the goddesses left for the night.

++[Abandoned Theater]++

Lune stared at the moon. It had been one of her favorite pastimes ever since her first days in Vintage. Probably because the majority of her assignments took place at night... but hey, it was still pretty.

Perhaps it was the only thing tethering her to her sanity, despite all of the blood she had shed.

Why was she helping him? What made her decide to put her bloodlust aside for Keima?

Maybe it was to repay him for all he had done for her. He did give her a place to recover and kept her hidden from everyone for the most part...

But there was something more. It had bothered her for a while now.

What made Keima want to rescue her in the first place?

In all her days as a member of Vintage, no one had taken the time to tend to her the way he did.

As a matter of fact, Vintage instructed its members to kill their partners if they were ever captured, so that no information could be learned by the wrong people.

But Keima set all that aside. He ignored all that Vintage had done to him, everything that _she_ had ever done to him. He actually saw something in her worth saving.

...

Or was it out of pity?

No, Keima wouldn't work like that. Something in the way he behaved confirmed that pity wasn't the reason.

What was it then?

Lune shook off her thoughts and went to sleep.

++[Wednesday afternoon]++

Elsie stood at the park. Part of her rainment floated in front of her eyes, letting Elsie see the past in front of her. It was a nice day at the park, yet it was empty because it was a school day. Elsie activated the temporal visor feature of her rainment.

++[Flashback Mode Activated]++

Keima ran into the park, looked at the ground for something, then headed towards the woods. Elsie saw herself walking to school, alone.

Elsie followed Keima, curious to see what Keima hid from her.

Keima stopped walking and started calling out to something. Elsie stopped as well and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary...until she looked at the ground.

Lune lay there, badly injured. Keima used his jacket to bandage her wounds.

Elsie now understood. This was why Keima vanished, and why Lune was keen on saving him.

The holographic Keima carried Lune and started walking through the woods. Elsie followed him.

...

After a short walk, Keima reached his destination.

"The theater," Elsie said out loud.

Keima walked quietly through the talk doorway that stood before Elsie. The doors behind him closed.

++[Flashback Mode Deactivated]++

Elsie returned her rainment its regular form and wandered into the building.

Elsie looked around the empty theater.

"Where would Keima keep her?" Elsie thought to herself.

She turned a corner and saw a figure bent over.

"Hello?" Elsie called out.

The hooded figure turned around, surprised. Two more appeared from the ceiling.

That was unexpected.

Elsie quickly turned around to see two more hooded demons blocking the doorway out.

Vintage, expecting Lune, found themselves a bonus rainment.

They circled Elsie and drew their swords.

 **WRITTEN: 8/13**

 **POSTED: 9/7**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Let me tell you a story.**

 **On August 1, 2015, I had no idea what the direction of my story was headed. I had quite a bit of it done, to the point where Keima was hopelessly in a coma (Chapter .)  
**

 **I realized I had no way of connecting this situation to the ending I had in mind. Sure, I could have the goddesses wake Keima, but then where would Lune come in? There was no way to make it fit! To make matters worse, I was at some food festival, so I couldn't concentrate.**

 **My family sat under a tent to listen to some jazz music. My sister, who is my faithful editor, read over my chapters. I told her my writer's block, and you know, that may have been the idea that salvaged my story.**

 **She suggested using a spell to wake Keima, and that's when it all clicked in my mind.**

 **The goddesses, Lune, Keima's slumber. Everything fell into place when that suggestion came to me.**

 **As a result, I can proudly announce that the ending is indeed in sight. It isn't too far off from this one event, in fact.**

 **So I'll take this moment now to say thank you to everyone who read my story over these past few months.**

 **I'm working on the ending so I can end on a happy note, but that will take some time.**

 **Happy reading! :)  
**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

Lune sat in her hidden room reading.

The room itself was well hidden behind a mirror that was covered with a curtain.

Exactly how Keima knew about this room was a mystery, but Lune was happy with it. Here, she could recover and continue planning her route without any disturbances...

A scream, followed by a loud bump, caught Lune's attention. What was that?

Lune stiffened and listened intently. Maybe she had imagined it?

Nothing happened. Lune went back to reading. She was still on edge, though.

"No! I need to save Nii-Sama!" the voice yelled. Lune's eyes widened in recognition.

A clatter of footsteps followed, then a brief bang.

Everything went quiet.

Lune grabbed her boxcutter and snuck out the room.

Elsie woke up with her head pounding. She looked around, but her headache made it difficult to see. She analyzed her surroundings.

She was tied to a chair. The Vintage demons, five of them in total, discussed her fate.

What was she to do now? There was no one to save her from here. She had searched the entire theater, yet found no trace of Lune.

The Vintage demons' discussion brought Elsie out of her thoughts.

"I say we kill her now," one of them whispered.

"No, we should use her to lure the other one," another one suggested.

"But her rainment could still get us that promotion," someone reminded them.

They argued back and forth like this, until they decided to kill her.

They turned to Elsie.

"Your luck's run out," one of them whispered.

They prepared to cast an assassination spell.

...

A bolt of energy hit one of the Vintage demons, who fell over.

The others froze and looked around for the source of that magic.

Lune hid behind a corner with her box cutter drawn.

The Vintage demons decided perform a sweep of the area. One of them stayed behind to guard Elsie.

Lune used the piles of old furniture to sneak up behind the lone guard. She crept up behind it...

"You didn't see anything," Lune smirked before knocking it out with a quick hit with the box cutter's handle.

Elsie was surprised to see her so calm. At the same time, however, she was grateful to see Lune come to her rescue her, as unexpected as it was.

Lune came over to her and untied the ropes binding her. She was quick to undo them, and helped Elsie to her feet.

"HEY!" someone yelled behind them.

Lune turned to see a Vintage demon running at them. She could hear the others coming as well. The demon pursuing them directed a spell at them, but it missed and hit some old furniture.

The furniture caught fire and burned quickly.

Lune shot another bolt of lightning at the demon and hit him in the chest. He fell over and started twitching uncontrollably.

The ceiling of the theater burst into flames.

Lune realized that she had to get the papers on Keima's loose soul.

"Get out of here," she told Elsie.

Elsie nodded and flew for the exit. Lune turned back towards her room.

The remaining Vintage inside scattered.

The flames spread quickly throughout the theater.

Lune burst into her room and grabbed the LST's report, the encyclopedia of loose souls, and the spell book. She put them in a bag and carried it out. Before she left, she turned and cast a forcefield around the room, protecting it from major fire damage. She ran towards the exit clutching her bag tightly.

Lune made it out of the theater safely. The flames from the theater lit up the night sky.

Wait...

Where was Elsie?

Lune looked around. "Maybe she flew off," Lune thought.

A rainment distress flare, followed by a purple puff of smoke blasted through one of the windows.

...Elsie never made it out, did she?

Lune hid her bag under a bush, then dashed back into the burning theater.

 **Special thanks to:**

 **blee: Your comments were one of the reasons I pushed myself to post these chapters two at a time. I loved reading your reactions to each of them.**

 **XxMidnightReaderxX: You were one of the first people to find this story interesting enough to follow. I appreciate your advice, which was what I needed the most.**

 **xellos540: You were the first person to find my ff "interesting, to say the least." I appreciate your comments as well, especially the critical ones. They helped me straighten out plot holes and better my writing. I'll be honest, I was heartbroken when I found some plot holes you pointed out. I was ready to quit writing, in fact. I realize now that critics are also instrumental to the learning process, because I can learn from their criticism, however harsh they may be. Thank you for that.**

 **KodakaRedfox: Where do I begin? You supported me from the beginning, even before I started writing. I discovered your fanfic while I was in the Philippines, and I regret nothing when it comes to the time I spent reading your fanfic. It was the push I needed to work out my fanfic into writing. Here it is! My first ever piece of fanwork to ever hit ! It would have never been this great if not for your constant guidance throughout its development. Hats off to you, Kodaka.  
**

 **Dricon: I honestly thought there were other fanfics like mine, and assumed that what I had written was already done. Well, now I know that I am one of the few who actually gave Keima some sort of powers, however limited they were. That part was a blast to imagine, not as much to write, though. XP**

 **Chapter 19 is coming soon! Stay tuned!**

 **Voir la lune? Il est assez ce soir.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hi guys! Long time no see!**

 **I feel that this chapter was heavily rushed...**

 **Tbh I would've added more stuff, but action sequences style are not my specialty...**

 **But here I am.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

 **+++#19#+++**

The fire had spread to the roof and walls. Windows exploded from the heat of the blaze. Smoke billowed through the halls of the dying building.

Lune covered her mouth with her rainment to block out the smoke. She ran from room to room looking for Elsie.

As she rounded the corner, she found Elsie...

Elsie was tied up and gagged. She lay unconscious on the floor, probably from inhaling the smoke.

Lune felt a breeze behind her. She turned and narrowly avoided a Vintage demon's blade. Two more demons dropped from the ceiling.

Lune drew her boxcutter and sliced at them.

The Vintage demon with the sword swung at her with its sword. Lune deflected the hits with only her boxcutter. She managed to disarm it and steal its sword.

The Vintage demon fell back. Its partners glanced behind her and ran. Lune looked as well.

A giant wooden column caught fire and was dangerously close to falling over, along with most of the roof.

Checking to make sure that Vintage was gone, Lune untied Elsie and carried her towards the exit. The roof behind her began to cave in.

Lune froze.

The only doorway out had collapsed in on itself.

Lune looked around and saw a large window. She ran while carrying Elsie and jumped through the window. Bits of broken glass cut into her, but she made sure Elsie didn't get hurt.

Lune and Elsie made it out right before the roof caved in on itself. The rest of the theater continued to burn, and Lune could hear sirens in the distance. She carried Elsie away from the burning theater...

++[Keima's House, Thursday morning]++

Elsie woke up in her bed. Her head was sore, and she had minor burns from last night. She was still in her smoky clothes from the previous night's ordeal.

She looked around her room and saw an unfamiliar bag on her table. She went over an opened it. Inside were two encyclopedias on loose souls or spells, an annotated report by the Loose Soul Team, and a boxcutter with the Vintage insignia engraved on the handle.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" Elsie asked to herself.

She read the bookmarked sections on Keima's loose soul and the spell needed. It was difficult to understand, but Elsie understood what was needed to lift Keima's curse. She looked at her clock.

"Time to go to school," Elsie said to herself. She went to get ready for school.

...

++[Theater]++

Lune looked at the smoldering ruins of the theater. The section with her room in barely survived last night's blaze. Her room remained intact, to Lune's relief.

The Vintage sword she stole last night hung by her side in a scabbard she had made.

Lune stood there for a moment to ponder what her next move would be.

"Well, this an interesting twist," she thought to herself.

Lune went inside to inspect the building and bandage her cuts scrapes from earlier.

...

++[Lunchtime]++

Elsie walked out towards the theater. She stared at the ruins of the once grand building.

Elsie considered going in, but decided against it. For all she knew, there were still Vintage demons lurking inside.

She turned and walked back to the school.

Her feet crunched the leaves on the wooded path.

*Crunch crunch crunch*

Where would Lune be, now that her hideout had been heavily burnt?

*Crunch crunch crunch*

What would happen now? Would she still be willing to help Keima?

*Crunch crunch crunch*

Elsie stopped walking.

Where did she put her lunch?

She checked around her backpack.

There it was, hidden underneath her notebook full of fire engine drawings.

*Crunch crunch crunch*

Elsie cringed. No one else was there except for her...right?

*Crunch crunch crunch*

The footsteps were getting closer to her.

Elsie turned around quickly.

A squirrel looked up at her with glassy black eyes.

It cautiously approached her foot, picked up an acorn that was nearby, then scurried off into the bushes.

Elsie relaxed. "Oh," she sighed,"it's just a squirrel."

She walked on, and stopped at a bench.

"This would a nice place to eat," Elsie thought.

She took a seat and ate her lunch. All the while, she enjoyed the peace and quiet of the woods around her.

After finishing her food, she stood up to take a stroll before heading back to the academy.

Unexpectedly, her longings to see her buddy back to his normal self took over.

"Nii-Sama..." Elsie thought intensely, hoping that he could hear her thoughts,"Hang in there. It's my turn to be useful."

An electrified crossbow bolt whistled past her ear and hit the tree in front of her.

 **A/N: Well, I'll be honest, I do not have much more planned after this.**

 **At the time of this posting, the first ending is done, but in need of serious revision. About 80% complete.**

 **Ending B is just finishing, but also in need of reviewing. About 70% complete.  
**

 **Everything in between is also written, but I'm looking for ways to add and improve. As it stands though, my life is _super_ busy. Progress on this story is _much_ slower than I was anticipating, but I'm still optimistic for my November deadline.  
**

 **The shortest chapters I have written are at least 500 words in length. My longest one has about 1200 words. The endings are much longer, about 1500 or more. Ugh.**

 **Plot holes and such are completely unintentional, and my writing is definitely rushed here.**

 **Sorry about that.**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***


	20. Chapter 20

TLWTD The Light Within the Darkness

 **As usual, I only read over and fixed a few things I thought were off, but I still feel like I missed a _ton_ of stuff. Thanks for bearing with my consistent imperfections!**

 **One more chapter left before the ending! Are you excited?**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

+++[20]+++

Elsie panicked. She activated her distress signal and ran back towards the school. It was a long distance away, about a fifteen minute walk.

The hooded Vintage demon hunting her made itself known. With its eyeball mask glowing red, it walked out of the woods with a crossbow in one hand and a knife in the other.

Upon seeing her assailant, she darted towards the school. She looked behind her and found that the demon was flying towards her.  
And it was closing in on her.

"What can I do?" Elsie frantically thought as she fled away from the Vintage demon.

Reaching a hand into her pocket, Elsie brought out one of her spirit detainment jars and uncapped it. The jar managed to vacuum the Vintage demon's crossbow and render it useless, but it shattered soon after. The attacker paused for a moment, then continued advancing towards Elsie.

"What now?!" Elsie desperately searched for a way out.

Elsie remembered the utility knife Lune left her. She fumbled around in her pockets until she found it. She unsheathed the blade and turned around to face her attacker.

The demon holstered its bow and surged forward towards her. Elsie backed up against a tree and pointed the blade at the approaching enemy. Her hands trembled heavily.

What happened next was purely instinct.

Elsie shut her eyes blindly ran towards the demon and ducked. She felt a strong breeze above her head, then rammed into the demon with all her might. Elsie felt blood spill out as the box cutter dug deeper into the opposing demon's rib cage. The demon grasped at its knife for a split second, then fell back onto the grass.

The demon lay still, and its eyeball mask slowly flickered out.

...

Elsie stood over the Vintage demon who just attacked her.

She stood there, the shock of all that just happened still setting in. Then it all came out.

She didn't want anyone to get hurt, really. If anything, Elsie was against any sort of fighting, but she..had no choice.

Right?

In that moment, Elsie's pain over Haqua's death and Keima's curse, along with her own feelings of hopelessness and loneliness came to surface in a tsunami of emotion. She leaned against the tree nearest to her and cried her heart out. The world around her was crumbling slowly...

After that, she just sat there, weeping quietly to herself.

Dokuro Skull and Rimyuel, along with two other LST demons came to respond to Elsie's distress signal.

They asked Elsie a few questions, then Rimyuel took the two other demons on a sweep of the area. Dokoro sat next to Elsie and put a bony hand on her shoulder.

"We made a call to the school that you got sick, so you can go home whenever you want," Dokuro told Elsie.

Elsie continued staring at the ground.

"Hard, isn't it, to take a life?" Dokuro said after a while.

Elsie looked up with teary eyes and nodded.

"You know, you made the better decision," Dokuro told her.

"Did I really?" Elsie doubted,"Because of me someone out there lost someone they cared about."

Dokuro stayed silent for a bit.

"There comes a time when the benefits outweigh the costs, even when they are high." she said.  
"Either way, someone gains something from a decision. The right choice depends on who benefits from the consequences, and why."

Elsie sat quietly and looked at her mentor.

"Take this...incident, for example," Dokuro continued,"if you hadn't killed that demon, you would most likely have perished. And then what? Your buddy dies, and everyone related to him gets hurt. The people who could've been saved by Keima would have no hope, as Keima is no more. They would suffer as well."

Elsie nodded. "What I'm doing then, is it right?" she asked her.

Dokuro turned and looked at Elsie. She held Elsie's hand in her own.

"You have done what most of us would never have been able to accomplish. You remained steadfast and did not let your doubts stop you. New Hell needs more demons like you," Dokuro said proudly.

She stood up and patted Elsie's shoulder.

"Whatever you plan next, all of New Hell will stand behind you," Dokuro pledged.

Elsie stood up as well. She knew what had to be done, and she was ready to pay whatever price was necessary.

"Will you be able to send some protection to Nii-Sama's house on Sunday night?" Elsie asked Dokuro.

"Of course. I'll send the best demons we have," Dokuro answered.

Rimyuel and her companions landed nearby. "Everything is clear," Rimyuel reported to Dokuro Skull.

Dokuro stood up and started to walk around. "I almost forgot," Dokoro turned around suddenly,"I have something to present to you."

Dokuro Skull waved her hands, and two beautiful swords materialized in the air.

Their blades, which shone a dark blue, were engraved with imprints of vines around the Loose Soul Team's coat of arms. The hilts were encrusted with amethysts and were lined in silver.

"This one is for you, child," Dokuro gave one to Elsie. Rimyuel and the other demons knelt on one knee.

Elsie held it tightly. The sword was perfectly balanced in her hands. On the handle the word "DEVOTION" was carved into Hellian.

"The life of your buddy, as well as New Hell's future, hangs in the balance," Dokuro said as Elsie inspected her sword further. "Use it wisely," she warned.

"But what about the other one?" Elsie asked her mentor.

The remaining sword floated in the air until a sheath appeared from nowhere. The sword nestled itself inside, then floated down to Elsie.

"This one goes to the Vintage demon helping you," Dokuro instructed Elsie.

Elsie nodded.

"How did Chief Dokuro know about Lune-Sama?" she wondered to herself.

 **Written 8/31**

 **Last updated: 10/11**

I am a bit down

and feel empty.

At last,

I see all goddesses.


	21. Chapter 21

**Again, I feel like this chapter was extremely rushed. Sorry.**

 **However, do look forward to next week, where the ending(s) are planned for release!**

 **Unless, of course, I die or something.**

 **Idk.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-FrozenDeluxe *.***

The Light Within the Darkness

***+[21]+***

++[Friday Afternoon]++

Elsie paced the floors of the cafe.

Business had been slow today, with only a few people entering at a time.

Earlier, she talked with Diana and told her about New Hell's assistance. She would relay the news to her sisters.

Most of the day was spent waiting for customers to wander in and stop for a quick drink.

At the moment, there were only two or three people studying for an upcoming test.

Leter, they stood up and left, leaving Elsie alone in the dining area.

She walked to a table in order to clean it. The bell rang as the door opened.

Lune took a seat in the corner and started reading a book she brought.

Elsie walked over to her. "Coffee with lumps of sugar?" she asked as she glanced at Lune's book.

 _ **-Spellcasters' Guide-**_

 _ **Over 200 Tips on Preventing Backfires**_

Lune nodded and continued reading intently. Elsie left to warm some coffee, and came back with a steaming cup.

Elsie fidgeted."The goddesses plan on gathering on Sunday night," she mentioned as she looked around for any customers.

"Good to know," Lune said without looking up from her book.

Elsie went to get a jar of sugar cubes.

Lune took a sip of coffee, "Vintage will most likely show up as well."

"I know," Elsie responded as she took a seat,"Chief Dokuro will send some other demons to help us."

"That being said, are you still ready for what may happen on that night?" Lune asked.

Elsie nodded slowly. "Whatever it takes to wake Nii-Sama up," she said seriously.

They sat there in silence for a moment.

"This will be a very eventful weekend," Lune smiled.

...

As Lune turned to leave, Elsie called out to her.

"Lune-Sama!" Elsie called out.

Lune stopped.

"I have something for you from Dokuro Skull," Elsie looked at her.

She used her rainment to produce the extra sword Dokurou had given her and gave it to Lune.

Lune was silently stared at the sudden gift.

"Are you sure this is for me?" she suddenly asked Elsie.

Elsie nodded. "Dokuro told me herself."

Lune turned the sword over and looked at the handle. On its jewel-encrusted surface, a single word was spelled out in Hellian.

-GUARDIAN-

++[Keima's Imagination]++

Keima sat on his bench playing his PFP. Haqua sat beside him, watching him with mild interest.

The white door appeared in front of them, and Diana walked in.

"Katsuragi," she called out to him.

Keima didn't look up from his game.

Diana walked up to him and stared intently at him.

"Conquest complete!" a melodic voice chimed from his PFP. Keima hit a few more buttons, then shut it off and looked up.

Diana rolled her eyes.

"Where are your other sisters?" Keima asked, "why are you here by yourself?"

Diana blushed, "They were all...busy," she looked away.

She took a moment to compose herself.

"A lot has happened recently that you should know about," she looked at him. Diana summarized everything that had happened since the last time the goddesses were in Keima's mind.

"Elsie did all that by herself?" Haqua asked with pride in her voice.

"Her devotion to him," Diana gestured to Keima,"is what kept her going, even with all that she has experienced."

"However, she did have some help, at least, as far as I saw." she added.

Keima understood.

"That demon from Vintage?" he guessed.

Diana nodded.

"And the demons in charge of the Loose Soul Team fully support Elsie with this plan," she said.

"Looks like everything is in order then," Keima stated.

Haqua looked at the ground with sadness in her eyes.

...

Keima and Diana talked more about the upcoming meeting, then Diana went back to reality.

After Diana left, Keima turned to Haqua. "How about you?" he asked.

Haqua blushed. "Wh-what do you mean?" she stammered.

"Will I see you again?" Keima looked at her.

"..." Haqua stared off into space.

"I think so," she said after a while,"since I now reside within your mind."

Keima went back to his game.

"You know, this means I can read your thoughts and see through your eyes.

There was no response from the gamer because he was so into his "perfect" sim.

But to be honest, his thoughts were elsewhere. Haqua understood that.

++[Sunday Afternoon]++

The LST spent all morning planning their positions. It was decided that Elsie would not be able to stay there for that night. After all, they reasoned, if Vintage got their hands on Elsie and killed her, Keima would die as well.

Rimyuel and some other demons escorted Elsie to the ship docked at the beach.

Meanwhile, twenty-five demons from New Hell guarded Keima's house. Their positions varied from hiding in nearby trees and bushes to flying above the house.

...

++[Keima's Bedroom]++

The Goddesses waited around for Lune to show up.

"Are you sure she'd even coming?" Vulcan asked Elsie.

Lune flew in through the window and took a seat in a nearby chair.

"Nice weather we're having tonight," she said with a slight grin, "I'm in the mood for some stargazing."

As expected, the goddesses were very skeptical of Lune.

Especially Apollo.

"For the record, I still don't trust you," she reminded Lune with a glare.

Lune just shrugged. "Okay."

Diana shushed her sisters.

"I sense many other auras from Hell nearby besides the ones guarding us," she said.

The other sisters murmured in agreement.

An LST commander knocked on the door and entered.

He saluted Lune. "Chief Dokuro left you in charge of us," he told her.

The other goddesses looked at Lune.

"What do we do now?"Apollo asked Lune.

"Vintage is approaching heavily from all directions. There are too many of them for all of us to handle at once, but we can hold them off for about two hours at best," the demon reported.

"With the help of the heavenly beings though," he gestured to the goddesses,"we can probably finish off most of Vintage without much trouble."

"We should go out and fight them first, then heal Keima," Mars suggested,"and take no unnecessary risks."

"I can protect the house with a forcefield," Minerva murmured loud enough for everyone to hear her.

"At the same time, if any one of us goddesses die," Diana pointed out,"all of us will perish as well."

"So it seems we have two routes, as Katsuragi would say," Mercury yawned," we can fight off Vintage first, then cure him, or we can heal first and hope that our demons can hold them off long enough for the spell to work."

"What's our course of action, chief?" Vulcan asked Lune.

Lune walked to the window and stared at the moon. A streak of red reflected across her eyes. After a moment of reflection, she turned back to the expectant people behind her with a decision in mind.

 *****X#X#X*** SPLIT ***X#X#X*****

 **A/N: At this point in time you would choose either Chapter 22 (Ending A) or Chapter 23(Ending B).**

 **Warning! If you do not pay attention to this notice, you screw yourself over for the ending.**

 **Just saying.**

 **11/7 UPDATE: Welcome back, TWGOK Fanfictioners!**

 **This series is now complete!**

 **Here's the guide to the next chapters:**

 **Ending A (Chapter 22): Lune and the goddesses heal Keima first.**

 **Ending B (Chapter 23): Lune and the goddesses take on Vintage first.**

 **Happy reading, and thanks for all your support!**


	22. Chapter 22: Ending A

**TLWTD Ending A**

 **++[RELEASE VERSION 1.4]++**

 **Welcome! If you are following along, Lune just decided to take the risk of healing Keima while leaving Vintage to the Loose Soul Team.  
**

 **As a reader, you either chose this ending or went back after reading Ending B. Lol.**

 **As always, sorry in advance for any poor writing or plot holes and such. However, thank you for your support of this fanfiction throughout its life!**

 **Be on the lookout for the sequel, _Melancholy of the Midnight Blizzard_ , coming soon!**

++[Keima's House]++

"Let's get this spell over with," Lune decided.

The other goddesses nodded, and the commander saluted.

"We'll hold them off as long as we can," he said before flying out the house.

Minerva made a forcefield around a house, and they gathered around Keima.

"Here goes..." Lune said.

A beam of light shot out from her hands, and Hellian characters started floating around her. Lune could feel her life energy tether to the ray of light.

The other goddesses directed their power towards Lune, keeping her energy to a sustainable level as the spell began to wake Keima.

A ring formed around Keima as the spell began his recovery.

"When the ring begins to fade, he'll wake up." Lune told the goddesses.

The others nodded and continued concentrating their energy towards Lune.

Just then, a crash shook the room, along with the sounds of fighting downstairs.

The force-field around the house, which glittered a light purple, shattered as Vintage troops overcame the LST's resistance.

Everyone could hear the Vintage troops running through the house.

The ring around Keima began to fade...

The smashing downstairs continued for a bit, then something hard shattered. The struggle ended.

After that, a tense moment of waiting followed. The goddesses looked around to watch out for any Vintage demons.

By now the light ring was about halfway gone.

"Almost there..." Lune gritted her teeth.

Footsteps from many different sources came from outside.

The goddesses looked at each other. What happened downstairs?

More struggling came from just outside the hall. A demon from the Loose Soul Team climbed in through the window and saluted Lune.

"It's bad. Vintage has just overrun us," the demon reported.

Diana looked at him and asked,"How many of them?"

"Sixty." the demon answered, "and we only have about twenty of ours left."

Someone started pounding on the door. The demon looked at it, pulled out a crossbow, and pointed it at the door.

A fireman's ax smashed through the door, opening the doorway to a waiting Vintage soldier. Someone grabbed him from behind.

The LST demon went out the door with his crossbow at the ready.

More sounds of thumping echoed through the hallway, then the LST demon stuck his head through the doorway.

"We'll keep watch from here," he said before walking back outside.

Minerva made a force field around Lune and the others, shielding Keima as well.

The ring was still slowly disappearing...

Gunshots resounded outside. Lune could hear the screams of both Vintage and the Loose Soul Team.

One of Vintage snuck up to the demon guarding the door and finished him with a thrust of its sword.

The Vintage demon kicked open the door and ran in with others following close behind.

Meanwhile the goddesses watched in horror at the bloodshed in front of them.

Five or six Vintage members surrounded the force field and began pounding at it. The force field started cracking.

The ring of light around Keima could barely be seen.

Mars drew her sword.

The force field collapsed around Keima, and the demons lunged in to finish them.

Mars turned and slashed at the demons, distracting the attackers for a moment as the spell entered its final stage.

The ring flashed brightly, then vanished. Keima still laid in his bed.

The goddesses looked at Lune, then charged at the demons in the room.

Minerva moved next to Lune and made a smaller force field around her and Keima.

Mars sliced at the demons with her sword. The demons in the room pulled back and fled, but the Jupiter sisters weren't finished yet.  
"We can handle them," Vulcan said to Lune, who nodded.

Apollo, Diana, Mercury, and Vulcan flew above the house. The Vintage outside took aim at them with crossbows, but the goddesses dodged them with ease. From their hands they shot beams of light that disintegrated their targets. Vintage scattered outside.

Mars dashed into the hallway and began taking care of the Vintage soldiers nearby. With one swing of her sword, she sent rows of them flying back the way they came in.

The other LST demons saw this, raised a loud war cry, and began attacking with new enthusiasm.

The Vintage assailants could barely hold up against the ruthless blows from the Loose Soul Team's swords. Against the goddesses above them raining death and the wall of demons attacking them, Vintage was powerless.

The remaining Vintage inside the house began to flee after hearing the commotion outside, but as Mars continued to clear the inside of the house, a Vintage demon managed to slip past her and reach the bedroom.

Lune caught sight of the intruder just as he entered. She pulled out her sword and swung at the demon. The blade, which shone a dark blue in the moonlight, crackled with electricity as it shattered the opposing demon's sword.

A quick hit with the hilt knocked the demon out.

Minerva, who had been hiding behind the bed, peeked out and saw that all was safe. She crawled out and looked up at Lune with nervous eyes.

"Wh-what do we do now?" she asked Lune nervously.

"I'm staying here to keep an eye on him," Lune nodded her head towards Keima.

Minerva agreed, and started setting up more force-fields around the windows.

Keima still didn't wake.

The Jupiter sisters outside had finished off most of Vintage. The few that survived fled the scene. The Jupiter Sisters finished off any lingering demons, then left the Loose Soul Demons to track down any stragglers.

The goddesses headed back towards the house.

...

Mars was still holding off six Vintage demons inside. She was cornered against a wall. She slashed violently at the opposing demons, but they blocked themselves.

They drew their assassination knives and pointed them at Mars...

Suddenly they disappeared in a bright flash of light. Mars looked up to see her sisters standing in a doorway. She smiled at them in gratitude.

Someone screamed from the bedroom, along with something heavy hitting the floor. They rushed upstairs.

++[Flashback]++

Lune and Minerva stayed in the bedroom. Minerva insisted on staying beside Lune, her childlike innocence convincing Lune to let her be. They stood there in silence watching the goddesses clear out entire ranks of attackers.

They were caught off-guard when a Vintage demon burst into the room.

The demon rushed into the room and grabbed Minerva by the arm. As Lune drew her sword, the demon threw a cursed knife at her. Lune dodged the dagger with ease, but it curved back and dug itself deep into her stomach. Lune felt her energy ebb away quickly as the blade's assassination spell began to take effect.

She leaned up against the wall and sank to the floor as her energy began to fade away into nothing.

Time seemed to slow down as Lune collapsed.

"It's a shame," Lune smiled sadly as she fell, "I didn't really get a chance to enjoy this sword."

She could only watch as Minerva screamed and flailed in her assailant's grip. The Vintage demon brought out another knife from under his cloak. He was going to kill Minerva, and thus destroy the other goddesses.

That wouldn't do.

With the last of her remaining strength, Lune yanked the assassination dagger out of her belly and threw it back towards its owner. As expected, the targeting charm on it hadn't worn off yet. The knife curved towards its target and stabbed the demon in the side, who fell over. Minerva looked at Lune in absolute fear and crawled to her. Lune held Minerva in her arms as the goddess to weep silently. Then Lune saw why.

Part of the Vintage demon's assassination blade had grazed Minerva's arm, and the spell began weakening her too.

++[End of flashback]++

The Jupiter sisters ran into the room to see Minerva crying in Lune's arms.

The goddesses tried to lift the curse from Lune, but she had already lost too much blood, and the curse had grown too strong.

Minerva saw her sisters, then continued to cry again as she wobbled towards them.

Diana and the others felt their power begin to ebb.

They knew.

The sisters huddled together in the center of the room.

"W-will I d-die?" Minerva asked between sobs.

"No." Mercury said calmly.

Minerva looked at Lune, who couldn't stand up anymore.

Lune was barely conscious. She watched the sisters with interest.

The sisters hugged each other. Minerva cried herself to sleep in Mercury's arms. Her sisters quickly erased all of the cursed blade's damage, along with the assassination spell, then stood by Lune.

"I'm sorry," Diana said grimly, "the spell has done too much damage...we can't save you."

The news did not phase Lune in the slightest. She shrugged it off as if it were perfectly normal to be die.

"You know," Lune replied weakly, "I never imagined that leaving Vintage would be this...fun."

She coughed up some blood. There wasn't much time left.

"What made you do all this?" Diana asked finally.

Lune looked at her. "I wasn't sure at first, but know I know." Lune whispered.

The Jupiter Sisters looked at her expectantly.

"I think...I found someone worth protecting." Lune smiled, "And that's a first."

Diana smiled. She knew how that felt.

Keima stirred. The goddesses turned looked at him. He opened his eyes and sat up. Keima inspected the room, then looked at each of the goddesses. Finally, his gaze came to rest on Lune.

Lune couldn't stay awake any longer. Her head drooped as she felt her senses gradually weaken. Her vision went dark...

The last thing she saw was Keima getting up from his bed as the sun rose.

 **+++END+++**

I only did what I ought to.  
At last,  
I see all goddesses.

 **Completed 10/15/15**

 **A/N: If you were hoping for a Lune x Keima moment, this is the best it gets.**


	23. Chapter 23: Ending B

**TLWTD Ending B**

 **++[Release Version 2.2]++**

 **Welcome! If you are following along, Lune just decided to take on Vintage before awakening Keima.  
**

 **As a reader, you either chose this ending or went back after reading Ending A. Lol.**

 **As always, sorry in advance for any poor writing or plot holes and such. However, thank you for your support of this fanfiction throughout its life!**

 **Be on the lookout for the sequel, _Melancholy of the Midnight Blizzard_ , coming soon!**

 **Let's see how this one turns out, shall we?**

***#X#X#X***

"We should take care of Vintage first," Lune decided.

The others nodded in agreement.

Mars unsheathed her sword. "Let's finish them!" she cheered.

...

A group of Vintage demons surrounded the door. They used magical explosives to blast open the door.

The explosion shook the house to its foundations. However, to regular humans the boom was not heard.

The door opened to the raiding demons, who stormed into the house.

No one was there. They walked in cautiously with their crossbows out...

A strong breeze blew through the house, and the door slammed shut.

The demons scanned the room again.

No one was there.

They started creeping up the stairs...

"Hey," someone called out.

The Vintage members turned around to see Mars with her sword out.

"How did you not notice me?" she feigned sadness before lunging the intruders.

Minerva held Mercury's hand tightly as they listened to the fight downstairs.

Keima was covered in a force field of his own, and the door to the room was reinforced with another barrier.

The smashing in the lower floor stopped, and something clattered to the floor.

Footsteps started climbing up the stairs...

Someone knocked on the door.

"It's me, Mars" Mars whispered from the other side of the door.

Minerva looked at Mercury, who nodded.

The force field opened, and Mars walked through.

"Well, they were easier than I thought," Mars shrugged."We should probably keep people from coming in, though."

Minerva agreed, and barricaded the entire house with another forcefield.

The house shook violently for a moment.

"What was that?" Mars looked out the window.

...

Diana, Vulcan, and Apollo flew around the house. Vintage shot spells and arrows at them, but to no avail.

The goddesses fired lasers from their hands that immobilized Vintage demons on contact. However, Vintage had one last trump card.

The ground shook as a giant humanoid statue made of stone marched towards the house. The statue grabbed at the goddesses, but the goddesses barely evaded the rough hands. The giant, however, kept them busy. The Vintage demons below them regrouped as their diversion continued to distract the towards the target.

The goddesses' light beams were bouncing off its stone skin. Meanwhile, the enemy continued to fire away, and their aim was getting better.

"What do we do?" Apollo asked Diana.

Diana analyzed the giant stumbling towards them.

"You two hold it off as long as we can," she decided, "and I''ll worry about the demons."

Her sisters nodded and went to distract the stone monster.

Lune stood defiantly at the rooftop watching the battle while keeping watch over the house. She pulled out her sword and looked at the words etched in the handle.

-GUARDIAN-

The ground shook as the giant stone figure stumbled around Maijima City.

Lune turned and analyzed the situation. She glanced around the area and saw a large pond nearby. An idea came to mind.

Lune commanded one of the LST demons to stand guard, then flew into the sky towards the stone statue.

The goddesses watched her and caught on to the idea. Diana stayed behind to fight off the raiders, while Apollo and Vulcan continued to fly just beyond the giant's reach.

The giant tried to grab Lune, but her nimble flight made that close to impossible. She led the giant away from Keima's house towards the pond.

Upon reaching the water, she hovered over the middle and holstered her sword. She pretended to surrender.

The statue waded into the pond and grabbed at Lune. It ignored the goddesses following closely behind it and focused on crushing Lune.

"Perfect," Lune thought.

She unleashed a wind that blew the giant statue off its feet. It fell into the pond and drenched itself in water. The figure stood up, enraged, and reached towards Lune.

The goddesses made lassoes of light and tied the statue's legs together, then went back to help Diana defend the house.

Lune flew around the stone and shot a freezing spell at them. The water froze, forming tiny cracks on their stone bodies. Shortly after, Lune defrosted the ice, gradually widening the cracks.

Lune repeated this process several times, and the cracks grew in size. The statue, though tough at first sight, cracked very easily, like a cookie.

One final defrosting from Lune assured the giant's destruction. Just in time, too, because the goddesses' rope finally broke.

As the enraged stone figure stood up, the cracks gave way, and it crumbled into a heap of old rocks with one final roar.

Lune pulled out her sword and flew back towards the house.

Minerva watched from Keima's window as the fight outside their shelter continued. Behind her, Mars and Mercury discussed possible plans.

"Look!" Minerva squealed and pointed towards Diana.

Mars and Mercury came to the window to see what caught Minerva's attention.

Diana was weaving through the air to dodge a hail of arrows. Vulcan somewhere nearby, but was occupied with shooting purple flames at Vintage demons attacking her.

As Diana flew around firing immobilizing beams at the demons below her, an arrow grazed her wing...

Diana's wings suddenly turned to glass and shattered. She looked at the fragments of her wings for a moment in surprise, then fell from the sky. Vulcan, who was surrounded by demons, could only watch as her sister plummeted towards the ground.

Apollo broke free from her crowd of demons and darted towards her sister, but it was clear she wouldn't be able to make it in time.

"Diana!" Minerva whimpered from behind the window.

...

Lune flew in just in time to break Diana's fall. They looked at each other, no words necessary for what needed to be said. Lune set the mildly surprised goddess on the ground.

From the bedroom window, the goddesses watching saw their hopes confirmed.

They had a powerful new ally.

Apollo reached the two of them as she blasted a hooded demon in the face.

"Thank you," Apollo said curtly before flying back out.

Lune gave a hint of a smile, then flew off to help some other LST demons fight off a group.

Diana cautiously entered the house after Minerva opened it for her.

"What are we waiting for?" Mars asked her sisters upstairs, "I'm going out to help!"

She unsheathed her sword and went outside just as Diana came in the bedroom.

Minerva ran up to Diana and hugged her while Mercury stood up from her seat at the window.

"How are your wings?" she asked with mild concern.

"I can't fly, but I should be fine," Diana answered. She neglected to mention the several cuts and scratches she had taken from the battle.

Mercury went to take care of Diana's wounds while Minerva continued to watch the battle outside.

The bloodthirst that had evaded Lune for so long finally started to return. Lune could feel her heart pound as she confronted her old teammates.

"Time to settle some scores," she thought with glee. She unsheathed her engraved sword and surprised herself with a giggle.

If it were any other instance that the goddesses heard her laugh, they would have trembled in fear. Tonight, however, they had the assurance that Lune was on their side.

It was Vintage's turn to be afraid.

Lune slashed at her attackers with a blinding speed. Caught off guard, some of them pulled back, but others weren't so lucky. They fell out of the sky as Lune continued her spree.

Even Mars was amazed at the precision with which Lune struck her enemies.

Suddenly, Lune felt something wrap around her chest and arms. She struggled for a bit, but could not resist the slowly tightening restraints put on her. She looked around for the source of her

bindings.

A group of Vintage demons coordinated their rainments to tie Lune down. Together, they twisted their rainments into an indestructible rope that wrapped itself around Lune.

Lune was immediately surrounded by Vintage demons armed with spears of their own. They flew in towards Lune with their tips pointed at her.

...

At the last second, a blast of purple fire separated the advancing demons from their target. Vulcan hovered above them with another fireball at the ready.

"Consider ourselves even," she said to Lune before firing away at some demons nearby.

The celestial fire burnt the rainment ties into brittle threads. Lune wriggled free from her rainment trap and turned to face her assailants.

Again, she unleashed a hail of slashes at them. A few Vintage members were able to deflect some of the blows, but others were cut down.

Lune's rainment started to crackle with electricity...

"You should rest," Mercury advised Diana.

Diana grudgingly did as she was told and paced around Keima's room anxiously.

Minerva gasped from her post at the window. A bright explosion of light illumintated the night.

After the flash came a loud crackle of thunder that shook the ground, along with most of the house.

Somehow, the other humans in the immediate vicinity were ignorant of this massive shock wave.

"What was that?" Diana rushed to the window. Mercury followed behind her sister.

They watched as giant bolts of lightning shot out from a clump of Vintage demons.

The large clump of lighting exploded in a ring of electricity that blasted the Vintage demons to the ground. Vulcan and the others outside stopped fighting and watched as demons rained from the sky. Mars hovered next to Vulcan and observed the sudden bloodshed.

"Vintage, retreat!" a voice called out. The hooded forces were more than willing to flee, and fled without a word. Meanwhile, the Loose Soul Team stuck around to handcuff those who were left behind. A few LST troops hurled insults at Vintage as they retreated into the dark.

The Jupiter Sisters flew into Keima's room to regroup. Lune came in as well, along with one of the LST commanders.

"They seem to have left the immediate area," he reported to the group.

The goddesses applauded. His voice must have been amplified, because cheering and more clapping erupted from the others outside.

"That's nice," Lune said after the cheering died down, "but you should stick around in case they decide to come back for more."

"Right," the commander saluted and flew back outside.

Mars walked up to Lune. "That was amazing!" she complimented her. Vulcan and Diana agreed.

"Thanks for helping us," Diana told Lune, "we couldn't have warded them off without you."

"Yeah," Apollo said less grudgingly, "nice job."

"Hey," Mercury called out, "should we heal him yet?" she gestured to Keima's sleeping form.

They formed a circle around Keima's bed. Lune stood in the middle of this group and began waved her hand.

A ring of light formed around Keima, and ancient Hellian letters began floating around.

The goddesses concentrated their energy towards Lune. Keima began glowing a slight pink.

Lune thrust her palms forward, and a beam of light shot out from them towards Keima. She could feel her soul tether itself to the fragile connection.

Drops of sweat ran from Lune's forehead as she focused her energy on breaking the curse.

Many tense minutes passed. From time to time, the sisters looked around at each other, but the most oppressive part was the silence.

From Keima's chest, a dark purple sphere of smoke floated up. The goddesses looked at it in fascination.

The glassy orb cracked, then shattered in a brilliant explosion of color. The room was filled with a blinding light.

After the flash, the light ring around Keima vanished.

"That should do the trick," Lune said simply.

Keima started to stir.

"Keima-kun!" Tenri quickly regained control of her body and went to his side.

Keima opened his eyes and looked around.

"You actually pulled it off," he said bluntly.

This made the sisters around him smile.

"Wait, where is my PFP?" he looked around frantically.

The entire room sighed.

++[Akanemaru]++

Rimyuel and Elsie walked around the old ship.

"Wow, this ship is awesome," Elsie looked around with interest.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Rimyuel followed closely behind her.

On the deck above them, five other LST demons kept a constant watch on the ship and its surroundings.

They reached a door.

"What does this door lead to?" Elsie asked her senior.

"Why don't we find out?" Rimyuel's gestured for her to open the door.

Elsie turned the doorknob.

"Wow!" Elsie's eyes glowed with amazement.

It was a small room, but it was full of things that interested Elsie. An elaborately carved desk and chair stood in the center of the room, while shelves of old navigational instruments lined the walls.

Elsie marveled at a marble chess set in the corner of the room as Rimyuel eyed a shiny compass that sat on the desk.

Rimyuel narrowed her eyes upon analyzing it further, then looked at it again.

The needle began spinning wildly.

Just then, she received a message on her rainment:

6/6 Demons online

:AT1:VINTAGE spotted.

Aprox. 15 in count.

Engaging

-Received just now.

"Elsie," Rimyuel turned to the excited demon.

"Yeah?" Elsie looked back from a shelf of seashells.

The floor shook and the lights flickered as an exploson rattled the ship.

++[Keima's House]++

The goddesses took turns telling Keima their story of how they came to help him. Lune had gone out to check the surrounding areas for any leftover Vintage demons.

"But really," Mars said, "if it wasn't for your sister, I don't think any of us would have been able to come in time."

Mercury sat in one of Keima's gaming chairs. In her lap. Minerva slept peacefully. Vulcan sat in another chair, while Mars, Diana, and Apollo were deep in thought.

Keima sat on his bed catching up on his PFP inbox. It was as if he didn't hear them at all.

Apollo gave a disappointed look. "It's like talking to a rock," she sighed.

Diana started to pace around the room. "Now this is over," she asked Keima, "what do we do?"

"What do you mean?" Keima asked without looking up from his game.

"Well," Diana explained, "it's been generations since we Jupiter Sisters sealed away the Weiss."

"Conquest complete!" a voice chimed from Keima's PFP.

Diana rolled her eyes.

"Aren't you worried that Vintage will come after you, especially after tonight?" she asked with concern.

"No," Keima answered, "anything outside of my games does not merit the slightest part of my attention."

"Besides," he continued,"New Hell caught most of them after all of you goddesses were awakened."

"Baka," Vulcan spoke up, "once you challenge them like this, they will stop at nothing to eliminate you as a factor."

Keima sat deep in thought.

"They are everywhere, you know," Apollo reminded him,"They can get into anywhere you can imagine." She shivered at the thought.

"They keep coming," Mars said seriously,"Vintage is a dangerous force to mess with."

Someone knocked on the door, causing all of the goddesses to flinch. Keima walked to the door and opened it to admit a demon chief. Lune followed closely behind.

"The fun isn't over yet," Lune announced with a half-smile.

The goddesses looked at her with mixture curiosity and annoyance.

"We just recieved word from our division by the beach. The ship is under attack," the commander informed them.

Keima sat up straighter. "How are they holding up?" he asked as he put away his PFP.

"Our forces are struggling to hold up. Only two of the six demons sent to guard it are still alive. Vintage is trying to storm the ship." he answered.

"We should go," Mars said. Vulcan nodded in agreement.

Diana was ready to go too, but Mercury stopped her.

"You're still hurt, remember?" Mercury reminded her sister from across the room.

Diana protested, but her complaints were wasted on Mercury.

"Really, I'm not hurt that badly," Diana insisted.

"Nope," Mercury answered in a calm voice.

"What will you do, then?" Apollo asked.

"I'll stay and watch over the house, then," Diana replied.

Minerva walked over to Diana and stood by her side.

"Umm...I'll stay as well," she said shyly.

"Suit yourself," Mars told the both of them.

Keima stood up. "I'm coming, too," he stated.

No one wanted to argue with him at that point.

"Alrighty then," Lune spoke up,"let's move quickly!"

The Jupiter Sisters, save for Diana and Minerva, flew off towards the dock. Apollo carried Keima while Lune and a few other demons with the Loose Soul Team followed closely behind.

++[Akanemaru]++

Waves from the explosion continued to rock the battered old ship back and forth.

The lights inside the ship flickered for a bit, then went out completely.

Elsie was about to shriek, but Rimyuel shushed her.

"Stay here," she commanded her.

Elsie nodded silently. She kept a hand on her sword.

They crawled under the wooden desk.

Rimyuel checked the logs on her communicator.

2/6 Demons Online

:FT12: The others are down. I'll hide below deck and keep it safe.

-Received 20 secs ago.

The only entrance to the bottom deck was on the other side of the hull, a long walk from the room they were in.

Elsie took a moment to catch her breath as Rimyuel re-animated her scythe.

"We're need to move," she whispered to Elsie.

Rimyuel peeked out the hallway. Seeing that no one was in the immediate vicinity, she snuck down a hallway with Elsie in tow.

A loud gunshot echoed through the empty hallways. Rimyuel recieved a notice on her Loose Soul Team communicator:

:[SYSTEM]:FT12 was disconnected.

-Received just now

"They're getting close," Rimyuel whispered to Elsie.

Together, the pair continued to move around the ship as Vintage searched for them.

"We're almost there," Apollo informed Keima as they began descending.

Keima nodded quietly and continued focusing on the ground beneath them.

Soon, they landed in some bushes not far from the ship. They could see hooded demons marching around the top deck.

"Stay here," Mars told Keima,"we don't want anything to happen to you."

"Nonsense," Apollo said,"he wanted to come, remember?"

"If you wanted him to stay, you should've said so before we left," Mercury said simply.

"He's safer with us than he is by himself," Vulcan added.

Instead of arguing with her sisters, Mars merely shook her head. "Whatever happens to him isn't my fault," she answered.

Apollo flashed Keima a quick grin before following the rest of the group.

Together, they walked down the path towards the ship.

...

The top deck was quiet and lonely, so when there was a loud creak, all of the Vintage demons immediately perked up.

"What was that?" one of them asked."

They looked at each other with their eyeball masks glowing in the dark.

Slowly, they turned around with their assault rifles at the ready.

There was nothing there.

They relaxed and turned around to their original field of vision.

BAM!

They each got a stunning light beam to the face.

"That was fun," Apollo said as she stood over one of the fallen enemies.

"Quickly," Mars reminded her sisters, "there are more below deck."

Very quietly, Lune and the goddesses snuck down the stairs into the depths of the ship.

The hallway forked into three different directions.

"What do we do now?" Apollo asked Mars.

"We shouldn't split up," Mars said, "because Vintage might ambush us."

They decided to head down the hallway to the right.

As they snuck around, Lune caught sight of a navigational sign.

Captain's Quarters==

Galley==

==Storage

Rimyuel peeked around another corner.

"No one seems to be here either," she turned back to Elsie.

Elsie nodded and followed her mentor's lead as she stayed low and hid behind some barrels that stood against the wall.

She nervously fingered the handle of the sword Dokuro Skull had given her.

Rimyuel shushed Elsie.

"Wait here while I check the corners," she commanded her.

Elsie was more than willing to oblige.

Rimyuel cautiously peeked around the corner...

and was immediately faced with a hail of gunfire.

"There they are!" a Vintage demon called out to the others.

Rimyuel grabbed Elsie and ran down the corridor they had just passed. As they ran, Elsie released one of her rainment dolls while making herself and Rimyuel invisible. The pursuing Vintage

demons immediately surrounded the doll and unleashed another round of gunfire.

Meanwhile, Elsie and Rimyuel ducked into a room and took cover. Through the corner her eyes, Elsie saw a navigational sign nailed to the wall. She could barely read the letters in the darkness of the ship.

Galley  
===

...

Elsie's rainment's invisibility wore off.

Gunshots echoed through the hallway as Lune and the goddesses ran within the ship.

"We must hurry," Lune told Mars.

"Right," Mars agreed.

"Wait," Apollo said.

The others looked at her.

"We're getting close- are we sure we want to take the risk of Katsuragi-kun getting killed?" she asked.

"Well that's interesting, coming from you," Mars retorted.

"H-Hey!" Apollo waved her arms, "if they get to him, then it's curtains for us as well!"

"I'm fine with waiting here," Keima spoke up from the back of the crowd.

"I'll stay too," Mercury spoke,"more time to nap."

"It's settled then," Mars said,"you can stay here with Katsuragi-kun while the rest of us go on."

"Let's go," Lune told the remainder of the group.

Together, they ran down the hallway.

The walls and floor were riddled in bullet holes. As the others caught up, Lune heard murmuring and peeped around a corner. She could see the shadows of their enemies bent over something.

The demons had not noticed that she and the goddesses were there.

Beneath them, a poorly made rainment doll lay on the floor, deflated and abandoned.

"Find them," one of the masked demons barked behind a voice-changer.

The nearest door to them was the galley. One of the demons went in to search while the others waited outside.

...

Immediately after, a loud crashing came from inside the galley.

They heard Elsie shriek.

"Let's go!" Mars whispered.

The group flew at the Vintage demons waiting outside.

The hooded troops, eight in total, were unprepared for the goddesses' ambush.

Lune pulled out her sword and started swinging at nearby demons. The goddesses flew around the narrow hallway and shot more stunning beams at demons.

Lune struck down a Vintage demon, then fought her way towards the galley.

Rimyuel and one of the Vintage demons fought in the back. The former was struggling to hold back the attacks of the latter. Elsie hid under one of the steel counter tops with her sword held tightly in her hand.

Rimyuel's attacker spotted Elsie, and immediately directed his attacks towards her instead.

Elsie swung her sword desperately at the demon and sliced part of his arm. The demon reared back in pain.

Rimyuel caught the demon's sword with her scythe and held it steady. With a free hand, she threw her rainment to Elsie, making her invisible.

This move, however, was without its cost.

The Vintage demon flung Rimyuel's scythe away from her and knocked her down the the floor.

Rimyuel struggled for a bit, but found no strength to continue resisting.

As the demon raised his sword to finish her off, Lune tackled him and took care of him with a quick thrust of her sword.

Rimyuel slowly stood up and nodded a quick thanks before walking outside to check on the other Vintage demons.

The goddesses had effectively tied all of the Vintage demons together with some rope that hung on the walls. Apollo made the point of pinning little ribbons on each of their cloaks. She finished the last ribbon, then glanced over her handiwork like an artist inspecting her masterpiece.

"We should go get Katsuragi," Vulcan said. Apollo agreed to do the task and went back to where Keima waited.

"Where's Katsuragi-kun's sister?" Mars asked.

Rimyuel snapped her fingers, and Elsie suddenly became visible inside the galley.

"That was scary!" Elsie whimpered as she took Rimyuel's rainment off and gave it back to her.

"So here's eight of the fifteen," Rimyuel counted the hooded demons in front of her.

"We ran into five of them on the upper deck," Mars added.

It only took a moment to figure out that something was wrong.

"Wait," Apollo realized, "there are still two of them out there!"

A loud bang reverberated from the hallway Keima and Mercury were.

++[Flashback]++

Keima paced the room anxiously. Seeing that he couldn't play his dating sims with his level of anxiety, he resorted to walking around instead.

From the looks of it, he and Mercury were in what may have been the crews' cabins. Rows of bunk beds and chests lined the floor in an organized fashion.

Where was the goddess, anyway? Keima looked around the room.

Mercury snored as she napped in a hammock.

With nothing else to do, Keima took a seat on a bed and tried to organize his thoughts.

"Come to think of it," Keima remembered, "the last time I was here was when I conquered Ayumi and awakened Mercury."

He could still recall the bells that tolled on that fateful night.

And then Chihiro...

*Creak*

Keima cringed. No one else was in the room besides Mercury and himself...right?

"Who's there?" Keima called out to no one in particular.

Mercury mumbled in her sleep. "I'll...read that...book...later...Minerva...zzz"

Quietly, Keima stood up and scanned the room.

Nothing in the room had changed, yet the air felt charged with tension. It was as if someone was watching him.

This was bad. Where were the others anyway?

What would he do now? Should he stay where he was, or investigate further?

A deafening bang shook the room as a ray of light lit up the room and hit the ceiling. A hooded Vintage demon faded into view and crashed to the floor. No wonder Keima didn't notice him at first, he was invisible.

Keima turned his attention to the origin of the beam of light.

Mercury sat up in the hammock with a neutral expression on her face. She had a hand pointed in a finger gun towards where the demon was hit. "You'd think they'd try to be quieter," she yawned. She pretended to blow smoke off her hand, then went back to snoozing.

Keima goggled at Mercury. Did he imagine things just now?

++[End of Flashback]++

"Katsuragi!" Mars burst into the room with her sword blazing. Her sisters also came in ready to fight.

They looked from the demon on the floor to Keima, and then to Mercury, who slept soundly in her makeshift bed.

"Oh," Mars put away her sword. She looked like she was mildly disappointed.

There was an awkward silence.

"Nii-sama?" Elsie peeked into the dark room.

It was hard to put into words what Elsie felt when she saw her human buddy again.

The immense joy she felt upon seeing that the person she cared for was there for her once more, the love she felt for one of very few people who saw any potential in her.

All that Elsie felt could summarized in one word- relief.

Relief that her "brother" was okay, relief that the ordeal Vintage was over, at least for the moment, and relief that she wouldn't be alone again.

Elsie sprang towards Keima and hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay!" she practically cried.

Keima hesitated for a moment, then put an arm around Elsie as well. "It's good to see that you're doing well," he said gently.

The goddesses smiled at this joyful reunion.

Lune hung out in the back away from the group. "This isn't the best time to be here," she silently decided.

"There aren't any demons besides us on the ship," Rimyuel read off a scanner, "the last demon got away."

"Well," Apollo sighed, "lucky for that demon, I guess."

The group made their way towards the stairs to the outer deck.

...

As they climbed out back into the outside world, the first rays of the morning sun greeted them, as if to say "Welcome back!"

"I should be going now," Rimyuel said. "I have to report to New Hell and inform them of everything that took place last night," she checked her wristwatch.

"By the way," she added, "no outsiders noticed any of last night's events, thanks to New Hell's magic. Any damage that occurred during the battle was repaired after the goddesses left."

"I guess that takes care of everything, then," Keima stated.

"Nii-sama," Elsie asked her buddy, "have you seen Lune-sama?"

The goddesses looked around as well, but found no trace of her. She had vanished as the sun continued to rise.

"Well," Rimyuel said, "I'm not going after her, especially after all she has done for us."

Keima stared back at Maijima City as the sun gradually illuminated the sleeping city. Elsie stood by her "brother," and together, they watched the morning sun.

From a distance away, a hooded demon observed the goddesses on the ship intently. After a while, the demon swished a scythe through the air and spun it.

"Just you wait, Capturing God," the demon promised, "I'll return Hell to the way it used to be, but you won't be there to see it!"

++[Abandoned Theater]++

The rays from the rising sun filtered in through the broken windows of the theater.

Lune sat in her room and stared at the ceiling. On the desk in front of her was a bag with a few travelling supplies, the Vintage sword she stole a few nights ago, and the sword Dokuro Skull had sent to her.

"Well," Lune thought with amusement, "that was satisfying." She smiled.

Never in her time working for Vintage had she felt this accomplished. She liked it.

Lune packed a few more items inside her bag, then wore the sheath for the decorated sword Dokuro gave her.

After a moment of deciding, she left the Vintage sword on the desk with a note, turned of the lights in the room, and flew off into the morning.

"Until next time, Katsuragi," the note read.

+=END==

 **Fun fact: this ending is 5x the length of a regular TLWTD chapter!**

 **Did you like it?**

++[ENDING B LOGS]++

 _8/17 Ending has been reached_

 _8/18 First draft completed_

 _8/19 FDOS Omg [First Day of School]_

 _8/20 early chapter_

 _9/12 Must work on more_

 _Catching up to ending pretty quick_

 _9/28 Finishing up the house scene...moving on to the ship battle._

 _9/29 Approaching the ending scene...the ship just got blown up._

 _10/1 Finish the story? Maybe?_

 _11/1 MUST FINISH- Ch. 21 Posted 10/30_

 _ **11/3** Fixes in "statue scene," developing "Mel's finger gun" scene._

 ** _At 8:33 Central Standard Time, The first draft for this story was completed. At that time, TLWTD reached its conclusion._**

 _11/4 All that's left to do is clean over some typos, etc. I feel ecstatic, really._

 _11/6 This is it. All date markings removed, posting today._

 _..._

 ** _The time has come to make_**

 ** _A success to revive you._**

 ** _But it's not so special._**

 ** _It's natural to complete._**


End file.
